Senate moves forward on budget bill to pass Biden economic relief plan

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Washington Post

The Senate approved a budget bill early Friday that paves the way for passage of President Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package, with Vice President Harris casting the tiebreaking vote on the measure that will be key to enacting Biden’s first major legislative initiative.

Passage of the budget bill came just after 5:30 a.m. Friday morning, after an all-night Senate session during which senators plowed through dozens of amendments in a chaotic process known as a “vote-a-rama.” Democrats cheered the progress on measures to address the pandemic, while Republicans complained of partisanship and excessive spending. The House, which approved its own budget bill on Wednesday, must now act on the Senate’s version, which it is expected to do within a day.

With the budget resolution complete, Congress can turn in earnest to writing Biden’s expansive pandemic relief proposal into law — and push it through the Senate without Republican votes if necessary under the special rules unlocked by the budget legislation. That process will take weeks, with Democrats eyeing mid-March as the deadline for final passage of the relief legislation because that is when enhanced unemployment benefits will expire if Congress doesn’t act first.

“With the passage of this resolution we have the opportunity not only to address the pandemic, to address the economic collapse, to address the reality that millions of kids have seen their education disrupted,” said Senate Budget Chairman Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). “We have the opportunity to give hope to the American people and restore faith in our government to fight for them.”

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/02/04/senate-vote-a-rama-biden-economic-relief-stimulus/

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Now that the Senate has approved an "amended" version of what I believe is the budget conference report, then it will need to go back to the House for consideration/debate/vote (this is because BOTH chambers MUST pass the "identical version" of any legislation).


Original article -

The Senate headed toward approval of a budget bill early Friday paving the way for passage of President Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package, as Democrats cheered the progress on measures to address the pandemic, while Republicans complained of partisanship and excessive spending. Senate passage of the budget resolution was expected later Friday, after senators plowed through dozens of amendments in a chaotic process known as a “vote-a-rama.” The House, which approved its own budget bill on Wednesday, must then act on the Senate’s version, which it is expected to do within a day.

With the budget resolution complete, Congress can turn in earnest to writing Biden’s expansive pandemic relief proposal into law — and push it through the Senate without Republican votes if necessary under the special rules unlocked by the budget legislation. That process will take weeks, with Democrats eyeing mid-March as the deadline for final passage of the relief legislation because that is when enhanced unemployment benefits will expire if Congress doesn’t act first.

“The American people are suffering one crisis after another, and we have got to address those crises as quickly as we can,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), chairman of the Senate Budget Committee. “That is our top priority: Crush the pandemic, and allow people to get back to work.” Despite Biden’s campaign promises of unity and bipartisanship, now that Democrats control both chambers of Congress and the White House they appeared ready to leave Republicans behind. Republican senators accused Democrats of hypocrisy and argued that, after already devoting $4 trillion to fighting the pandemic, including $900 billion in December, there was no need to spend another $2 trillion on what they termed a wish-list of liberal priorities.

“This is not the time for trillions more dollars to make perpetual lockdowns and economic decline a little more palatable,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). “Notwithstanding the actual needs, notwithstanding all the talk about bipartisan unity, Democrats in Congress are plowing ahead. They’re using this phony budget to set the table to ram through their $1.9 trillion rough draft.” The House passed the budget legislation on Wednesday, with all Republicans opposed. Under the Senate’s arcane rules, debate on the budget resolution in the Senate triggered a freewheeling amendment process known as a “vote-a-rama” that began Thursday afternoon and was still going well past 4 a.m. Friday, with no limit on the number of amendments that could be offered.

[Baclava]

1. Woo-hoo! Now the House needs to pass same Bill and prez to sign it. $1400 check is in it

[BumRushDaShow]

2. Not yet.

This just sets up the parameters to actually create the legislation that would include the checks and other things.

They are estimating some time in March hopefully.

[Baclava]

3. Ram it through! lol

[BumRushDaShow]

4. LOL

I don't know if you followed the "sausage-making" for the ACA but this is a similar principle. The relevant committees have most likely been having hearings and working on draft markups, although a lot of that probably could be lifted from the earlier House legislation. They also have to have the CBO "score" it for cost.

Just have to make sure that neither Manchin nor Sinema blow it up (those working on it should draft something else that has some pork in it for those two to bring home to their states).