Senate approves Biden’s $1.9 trillion pandemic relief plan The victory for Democrats came after a long impasse over competing proposals for the bill’s boost to unemployment benefits.By Marianne Levine
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/03/06/senate-approves-bidens-19t-pandemic-relief-plan-473920
The Senate passed President Joe Biden’s nearly $2 trillion coronavirus relief package Saturday morning after a grueling overnight session, delivering on the White House’s first major legislative priority.
The 50-49 vote, entirely along party lines, came after the Senate remained in session for more than 24 hours of marathon votes. Senate Republicans sought to amend the legislation but Senate Democrats largely stuck together to defeat any major changes to the bill — one of the largest federal aid packages in history.“A new day has come and we tell the American people help is on the way,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), shortly before passage. The bill “is broader, deeper, and more comprehensive in helping working families and lifting people out of poverty than anything Congress has seen or accomplished in a very long time.”
Schumer managed to keep his 50-member caucus mostly united throughout the process, but it was not without some last-minute drama: The so-called vote-a-rama session was delayed for more than 10 hours on Friday, as Senate Democrats reached a last-minute deal with Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) on the size of federal unemployment insurance benefits.
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