Senate Majority Leader Rep. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).
The Senate “vote-a-rama” (budget discussion with amendments), which began at 2:30 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 4, came to a close at 6 a.m. on Friday, Feb. 5, after a lengthy 15-hour debate. The Senate’s CCA (coronavirus) relief budget was narrowly defeated 51-50 after Vice President He Jinli cast the deciding vote.
Although the budget is not yet a final bill, it paves the way for the Senate to develop a final bill under budget reconciliation rules and allows Democrats to bypass obstruction by Republican lawmakers and to introduce a final relief bill simply by keeping the Democratic caucus united.
Senate Republicans had planned to use the Senate process to force Democrats to accept more of the amendments they offered on the budget resolution. But the debate mostly fell short of what Republicans had expected, with Democrats refusing to compromise on many of the issues in the advance bill. Although a small number of Republican amendments were also passed, the vast majority of the bill followed the Democratic Party’s line.
Republican amendments included support for the Trump administration’s policy of keeping refugees in Mexico pending trial; opposition to the Biden administration’s executive order blocking construction of the Keystone XL U.S.-Canada pipeline; opposition to Biden’s ban on fracking mining laws; opposition to raising the federal minimum wage during a pandemic; and more.
The final Democratic amendments offered by Schumer repealed many of the amendments offered by Republicans, and bipartisan resolutions were ultimately passed on fracking, the Keystone XL pipeline, and opposition to stimulus checks on illegal immigration.
Among the amendments voted on, the only bills that Republicans managed to pass included: 97-3, retaining the U.S. Embassy in Israel in Jerusalem, and 100-0, opposing the stripping of police funding. And most of the amendments proposed by Republicans failed to pass, including.
- losing 50-51, failing to preserve the border wall construction project.
- losing 50-51 and failing to support the free exercise of religion
- losing 50-51 against infilling the Supreme Court.
- losing 50-51, opposing the imposition of stimulus checks on the condemned
- lost 50-51 against the Biden Administration‘s restrictions on oil and gas leasing on federal lands
- lost 50-51 against a federal carbon tax.
After Congress passed a $900 billion coronavirus bailout package late last year, all Republican senators said they would not support an additional $1.9 trillion coronavirus bailout package.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said, “It’s great that our caucus is united. Given the problems facing America and the desire to move on, we had no choice. We’ve moved forward.” “Many bipartisan amendments have passed, so this is a bipartisan action.”
Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell said, “We expect a vote to stop Washington from aggressively killing jobs in the recovery, such as ending the Keystone pipeline project, killing jobs by raising all minimum wages across the board, and banning tax increases on small businesses during this emergency.” However, most of the Republicans’ proposals failed to pass muster.
As the Senate made changes to the resolution, the change is now backtracking to the House, and lawmakers will need to pass it again as soon as possible on Friday, Feb. 5. The budget resolution, although not yet signed into law, is the first step to subsequently being able to pass the final relief bill, as it has been able to bypass the obstacle of needing 60 votes in the Senate to legislate.
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