- The Senate voted on Tuesday on a budget resolution that could speed up coronavirus assistance through Congress.
- Not one Republican senator voted to advance the measure.
- The phrase “No Republicans” on Twitter was the trend toward the vote.
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Senate Republicans issued a $ 1.9 billion mass reprimand of President Joe Biden’s rescue package when no one voted to advance the stimulus package.
In a strict party vote, all 50 Senate Democrats voted to advance a budget resolution to expedite the aid package by Congress without Republican support. Forty-nine Republicans voted against the resolution. Senator Patrick J. Toomey, a Republican in Pennsylvania, did not vote because he was delayed by snow.
The phrase “No Republicans” was on Twitter following the vote.
“We are not going to dilute, vanish or slow down,” Chuck Schumer, Senate and majority leader in New York, said on the Senate floor. “There is nothing to the process itself that prevents bipartisanship.”
The package on the line includes a round of $ 1,400 stimulus checks for most Americans, $ 350 billion to state and local governments, an increase in federal unemployment benefits to $ 400, and a proposal to raise the federal minimum wage to $ 15, among others, to increase.
All four criteria are a fixed point between the two parties.
Republicans want the $ 1,000 checks to be restricted and have demanded that they only go to people who earn less than $ 50,000 a year. They say the money for state and local governments is not necessary and did not include any local funding in their counter-offer. They want the current federal aid without jobs to remain the same and continue until June. According to Biden’s plan, it will be increased and expanded until September. And while some Republicans support the increase in the federal minimum wage, few people want it as high as $ 15.
The bill also includes $ 130 billion for school reopening, a major expansion of the child tax credit, $ 50 billion for COVID-19 testing, and $ 20 million for a national vaccination program in partnership with states, communities and tribes.
The 50-49 vote on promoting the package begins the budget reconciliation process in the Senate. This would allow Democrats to pass Biden’s plan with only 51 votes, instead of the super-majority of 60 votes usually required by bills.
The GOP’s united opposition to the resolution comes after Biden on Monday offered Republicans to discuss the party’s $ 618 billion counter-offer.
“[Biden] was very strong in emphasizing the need for a large, daring package, “majority leader Chuck Schumer told a news conference Monday. He said he had told Republicans in the Senate that the $ 600 billion they were proposing was far too small. “
According to The New York Times, some Republican senators considered Biden more receptive to compromises than his staff or Schumer during the meeting.
“They have chosen a completely biased path,” Kentucky Senator and minority leader Mitch McConnell told The Times about Senate Democrats.
McConnell used reconciliation to pass both tax cuts during his time as majority leader. He also used the measure in a failed attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
Senate Democrats can approve the resolution as early as Friday.
According to Roll Call, the House will vote on its almost identical measure on Wednesday and then have to vote again on the final approval of the joint measure after the Senate made additions.