Maine Rep. Jared Golden was the only Democrat to vote no.
This is a recent update. An earlier version of this report is below.
President Joe Biden met Friday with leading House Democrats aiming to put his $ 1.9 billion coronavirus relief package on a fast track to becoming law, with new signs of tensions in the economy to push for its approval.
“We can not do too much here, we can do too little,” he told them. “Real, living people hurt. And we can fix it. And we can fix it and the irony of all irony is when we help them, we also help our competitive ability through the rest of this decade.”
The Senate early Friday approved a measure that allowed Democrats to enforce the relief plan through the House without Republican support. Vice President Kamala Harris was in the chair to bring out the strike, her first.
Senate Democrats cheered after Harris announced the 51-50 vote at about 5:30 p.m. The action took place after an exhausting all-night session, where senators voted on amendments that could define the contours of the final COVID-19 bill.
The budget now returns to the House, where it will likely be approved again Friday to reflect the changes made by the Senate. The measure can then be worked out by committees so that additional relief can be finalized by mid-March, when extra unemployment assistance and other pandemic assistance expire. It is an aggressive timeline that will test the ability of the new government and Congress to deliver.
The pressure on stimulus comes amid new signs of a weakening US economy. Employers added just 49,000 jobs in January, after cutting 227,000 jobs in December, the Department of Labor said Friday. Restaurants, retailers, manufacturers and even the healthcare sector fired employees last month, meaning private employers made a meager profit of 6,000 jobs last month.
“At this rate, it will take ten years before we get full service,” Biden said during the meeting with House Democrats. “It’s not hyperbole. It’s a fact.”
The unemployment rate dropped to 6.3% from 6.7%, but there was a decrease in the number of people who either worked or looked for work in a sign that some people were leaving the labor force. The US economy is shy of 9.9 million jobs from its level before the pandemic.
Biden, who has met with lawmakers in recent days to discuss the package, welcomed the leaders of the House committees that will draft the bill under the budget process known as ‘reconciliation’.
Biden also plans to make remarks about the economy on Friday, as he continues to put pressure on Congress to “act big” on its emergency relief package.
Money for the distribution of vaccines, direct payments to households, reopening of schools and business assistance are at stake.
The Senate has approved a 99-1 amendment that would prevent the $ 1400 direct checks in Biden’s proposal from going to ‘taxpayers with higher incomes’. But the measure, guided by sense. Susan Collins, R-Maine and Joe Manchin, D-West Virginia, are ultimately symbolic and non-binding and do not specify at what level a person qualifies as a higher income.
The Senate session in the marathon brought test votes on several Democratic priorities, including a minimum wage of $ 15. pandemic. Ernst said a wage increase for small businesses would be ‘devastating’.
None of the budget changes are binding on Democrats if they draft their COVID plan, but succeeding in a pay rise could be difficult. Even if a $ 15 wage bill in the final bill can pass the procedural challenges, the support of every Democrat in the 50-50 Senate will be needed, which could be a high order.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, a staunch supporter of the pay rise, has vowed to continue. “We must end the crisis of starvation wages,” he said.
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Associated Press writes Zeke Miller contributed to this report.
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