The Senate struggled through a long series of votes late Thursday and early Friday, while Democrats voted most of the theoretically unlimited series of amendments to their budget resolution. Endurance, known as the ‘vote-a-rama’, is a long-respected tradition of reconciliation – the budgetary instrument that Democrats are likely to use to [President] Biden’s 1.9 billion coronavirus relief plan without any GOP support, ” Politico explain.
Most votes-a-rama involved “Republicans force Democrats to tedious and awkward votes on a variety of issues, as Democrats inflicted maximum pain by dragging out legislative torture,” Politico reports. However, some amendments did come with dual support. Through a vote, for example, senators approved an amendment by Senator Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) to ‘ban the increase in the federal minimum wage during a global pandemic’. Raising the minimum wage to $ 15 an hour is one of the heavy lifts in Biden’s proposal.
” A federal minimum wage of $ 15 would be devastating for our smallest businesses hardest hit, at a time when they can least afford it, ” Ernst argued on the Senate floor. The biggest proponent of the measure, chairman of the budget committee, Bernie Sanders (IV), raised the vote, noting that his plan raised the minimum wage over five years, following the pandemic. “We must end the crisis of famine in Iowa and around the United States,” he said, adding that he “will do everything I can” to make sure the measure is “incorporated into this reconciliation bill.”
The increase in the minimum wage can be halted by other factors: nervous Joe Manchin (DW.Va.) is opposed to it and it could go wrong with the so-called Byrd rule restrictions on what could be included in conciliation bills. House President Nancy Pelosi (D-California) said if it does not fit into this bill, Democrats will include it in other legislation.
The Senate also approved amendments to keep the U.S. Israeli embassy in Jerusalem, prevent undocumented immigrants from getting direct incentives, and – by a 99-1 vote – limit Biden’s $ 1400 checks to go to ‘taxpayers with higher incomes’. The proposal, from Manchin and Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine), did not specify any revenue thresholds, and Biden’s proposal already includes phasing out checks to $ 300,000 a year to households. Congress and the White House are negotiating the phasing out and cut-off points, and Biden is meeting with Democratic leaders and committee chairmen on Friday morning to discuss the COVID-19 bill on relief.
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