WASHINGTON — The latest COVID-19 relief package has now passed the Senate and House, and will soon be on it’s way to President Joe Biden’s desk.
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The legislation, dubbed the American Rescue Plan, includes $1,400 stimulus checks, billions of dollars for vaccines, and money to reopen schools.
While Biden and Democrats are cheering the bill as a victory in the quest to fight the impacts of the coronavirus crisis, Republicans say the bill is wasteful and full of provisions that don’t address the virus. No Republicans vote for the bill in either chamber of Congress..
Here are some takeaways of the bill’s passage through Congress and what happens next:
First partisan piece of COVID relief legislation
The American Rescue plan made it through Congress with only Democratic support, making it stand out from the bipartisan COVID relief plans Congress passed over the last year.
Though the two sides squabbled over priorities in each of the previous packages that cleared Congress, all were approved with members of both parties in support — except the one approved Wednesday.
The final vote Saturday in the Senate was 50–49 with all Republicans voting against the measure and all members of the Senate Democratic caucus supporting it. Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, was not present for the vote. In the House, it didn’t earn a single Republican vote in the two times the bill came to a vote.
Biden ran on his ability to broker bipartisan efforts on Capitol Hill, drawing on his 36 years in the Senate and eight years as vice president. Republicans have viewed the bill as a betrayal of the bipartisanship Biden embraced and spoke of during his campaign.
‘Socialism’: GOP reactions to legislation passing
Republican lawmakers described the stimulus plan as a “clunker,” “bad politics” and “wildly expensive.”
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., described it as a “laundry list of leftwing priorities” that “do not meet the needs of American families.”
“It is very liberal,” he said. “They called this the most progressive piece of legislation in history. For those who are watching, progressive means socialism.”
Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo., called the legislation a “progressive wish list forced down by the Democrat party.”
Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., said in a statement he was “glad to know” his constituents would get a stimulus payment and other benefits of the bill, but explained why he voted against it.
“But the legislation passed today is one of the largest expenditures in American history–with spending unrelated to the COVID-19 pandemic — and Republicans were left out of all negotiations,” he continued, saying the legislation “still manages to spend way too much money”.
Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., the House Republican Conference chair, said in a statement the bill “does far more harm than good, and the damage it does will only make our recovery efforts more difficult.”
1 Democrat voted against the bill twice
The bill sailed through the House despite complaints from progressive Democrats who believed too many concessions were made to moderate Democrats when the bill passed Senate on Saturday.
The final vote was 220–211, with one Democrat — Rep. Jared Golden of Maine — opposing it, saying it would borrow and spend far more than is needed.
“Borrowing and spending hundreds of billions more in excess of meeting the most urgent needs poses a risk to both our economic recovery and the priorities I would like to work with the Biden administration to achieve, like rebuilding our nation’s infrastructure and fixing our broken and unaffordable healthcare system,” Golden said in a statement on Wednesday.
Golden also opposed the House’s first vote on the legislation in late February before it went to the Senate. The bill had to go through the House one last time because of changes made in the Senate.
Rep. Kurt Schrader, D-Ore., voted against the first bill in February, but supported the Senate’s modified legislation during Wednesday’s vote.
Republicans tried to slow the bill down
With Democrats controlling both chambers of Congress, some Republicans pulled out all the stops in attempts to delay voting on the legislation.
Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., forced the Senate to begin reading all 628 pages of Biden’s COVID bill aloud on the Senate floor Thursday.
More:Republican Sen. Ron Johnson forces Senate to read all 628 pages of Biden’s COVID bill aloud
Johnson said his tactic was about “educating” the American public on what was in the $1.9 trillion package, which he has derided as full of provisions unrelated to COVID relief. The entire process took more than 10 hours.
Then senators were allowed to bring up amendments to the bill. The rapid succession of votes on each proposed change is dubbed a “vote-a-rama.”
Republican Senators filed nearly 600 amendments, but only brought forth a fraction of those for debate. It was enough to draw out the voting session for more than 24 hours, keeping senators voting from from Friday morning into Saturday.
More:Senate OKs extension of $300 weekly unemployment benefit after long delay
One issue, unemployment insurance, was stalled by Democratic senators for most of the day Friday as they negotiated behind closed doors, focusing on the vote from Sen. Joe Manchin, a moderate Democrat from West Virginia who expressed interest in plans from Republicans and Democrats.
During the House’s session on Wednesday, before lawmakers began debating on the legislation, Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene forced the House to delay debating and voting on the stimulus bill by forcing a vote to adjourn House proceedings ahead of the debate. The effort failed.
A big win for Biden
Signing COVID-19 relief has been Biden’s chief legislative priority since he began his presidency.
He’s stressed the aid is sorely needed for Americans battling the economic impacts of the pandemic and repeatedly pushed for Congress to pass the bill quickly.
