Washington:
The US Senate passed a price range resolution early Friday that will enable Democrats to pass President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion pandemic relief package with no Republican assistance.
Vice President Kamala Harris cast the tie-breaking vote to make it 51-50 in the early morning showdown, concluding a procedure recognized as a “vote-a-rama” in which senators addressed dozens of amendments to the resolution.
Some drew assistance from each parties, such as an amendment in search of to bar higher earnings Americans from getting $1,400 Covid-19 relief checks.
The vote was a procedural one that did not approve Biden’s very first significant legislative initiative itself.
Rather, it set the stage for Democrats to be in a position to pass it on a party line vote, with no the threat of a filibuster by Republicans, quite a few of whom oppose Biden’s bill simply because they say it is as well high-priced.
The House currently passed a price range resolution earlier this week but it will have to be reconciled with the Senate version.
Biden has reached out to Republicans on the Covid package but warned that he is prepared to act with no them, saying the government need to act with urgency as the pandemic continues to strangle the economy and has brought on a death toll of more than 450,000.
After the vote, Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer mentioned, “this was a giant first step, a step in concord.”
But Senator John Cornyn, a Republican from Texas, argued that most of the income from the final relief bill passed by Congress in December has not even been disbursed however.
“This reconciliation process is designed not to encourage bipartisanship, not to encourage negotiation, not to get bipartisan buy-in,” Cornyn mentioned.
“What do our Democratic colleagues want to do? They want to continue to shovel money out the door.”
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