WASHINGTON\u00a0\u2013 The latest COVID-19 relief package\u00a0has now passed the Senate and House, and will soon be on it’s way to President Joe Biden’s desk.<\/p>\n
The legislation, dubbed the American Rescue Plan,\u00a0includes\u00a0$1,400 stimulus checks, billions of dollars for vaccines, and money to reopen schools.<\/p>\n
While Biden and Democrats are cheering the bill as a victory in the quest to fight the impacts of the coronavirus crisis, Republicans say the bill is wasteful and full of provisions that don’t address the virus. No Republicans vote for the bill\u00a0in either chamber of Congress..<\/p>\n
Here are some\u00a0takeaways of the bill’s passage through Congress and what happens next:<\/p>\n
The American Rescue plan made\u00a0it through Congress with only Democratic support, making\u00a0it\u00a0stand\u00a0out from the bipartisan COVID relief\u00a0plans Congress passed over the last year.<\/p>\n
Though the two sides squabbled over priorities in each of the previous packages that cleared Congress,\u00a0all\u00a0were approved with members of both parties in support\u00a0\u2013 except the one approved Wednesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Live updates:<\/strong> Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 stimulus plan expected to get final passage Wednesday<\/span><\/p>\n The final vote Saturday\u00a0in the Senate was 50-49 with all Republicans voting against the measure and all members of the Senate Democratic caucus supporting it. Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, was not present for the vote. In the House,\u00a0it didn’t earn a single Republican vote in the two times the bill came to a vote.\u00a0<\/p>\n Biden ran on his ability to broker bipartisan\u00a0efforts on Capitol Hill, drawing on\u00a0his 36 years in the Senate and eight years as vice president.\u00a0Republicans have\u00a0viewed\u00a0the bill as a betrayal of the\u00a0bipartisanship Biden embraced\u00a0and spoke of during his campaign.<\/p>\n Republican lawmakers described the stimulus plan\u00a0as a “clunker,”\u00a0“bad politics” and \u201cwildly expensive.”<\/p>\n House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., described it as a “laundry list of leftwing priorities” that “do not meet the needs of American families.”<\/p>\n “It is very liberal,” he said. “They called this the most progressive piece of legislation in history. For those who are watching, progressive means socialism.”<\/p>\n Let\u2019s be clear \u2192 This isn\u2019t a rescue bill. It\u2019s a laundry list of leftwing priorities that predate the pandemic and do not meet the needs of American families. https:\/\/t.co\/Hmjmc7Oesk<\/p>\n Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo., called the legislation a \u201cprogressive wish list forced down by the Democrat party.\u201d<\/p>\n Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., said in a statement he was “glad to know” his constituents would get a stimulus payment and other benefits of the bill, but explained why he voted against it.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cBut the legislation passed today is one of the largest expenditures in American history\u2013with spending unrelated to the COVID-19 pandemic \u2013 and Republicans were left out of all negotiations,” he continued, saying the legislation\u00a0“still manages to spend way too much money”.<\/p>\n Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo.,\u00a0the House Republican Conference chair, said\u00a0in a statement\u00a0the bill “does far more harm than good, and the damage it does will only make our recovery efforts more difficult.”<\/p>\n The bill sailed through the House despite complaints from progressive Democrats who believed too many concessions were made to\u00a0 moderate Democrats when the bill passed Senate on Saturday.<\/p>\n The final vote was 220-211, with one\u00a0Democrat\u00a0\u2014 Rep. Jared Golden of Maine \u2014\u00a0opposing it,\u00a0saying it would borrow and spend far more than is needed.<\/p>\n \u201cBorrowing and spending hundreds of billions more in excess of meeting the most urgent needs poses a risk to both our economic recovery and the priorities I would like to work with the Biden administration to achieve, like rebuilding our nation\u2019s infrastructure and fixing our broken and unaffordable healthcare system,\u201d Golden\u00a0said in a statement on Wednesday.<\/p>\n Golden also opposed the House’s first vote on the legislation in late February before it went to the Senate. The bill had to go through the House one last time because of changes made in the Senate.\u00a0<\/p>\n Rep.\u00a0Kurt Schrader,\u00a0D-Ore., voted against the first bill in February, but supported the Senate’s modified legislation during Wednesday’s vote.\u00a0<\/p>\n With Democrats controlling both chambers of Congress, some Republicans\u00a0pulled out all the stops in attempts to\u00a0delay voting on the legislation.<\/p>\n Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., forced the Senate to begin reading all\u00a0628 pages\u00a0of\u00a0Biden’s COVID bill\u00a0aloud on the Senate floor Thursday.\u00a0<\/p>\n Johnson said his tactic was about \u201ceducating\u201d the American public on what was in the\u00a0$1.9 trillion package, which he has derided as full of provisions unrelated to COVID relief.\u00a0The entire process took more than\u00a010 hours.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Then senators were allowed to bring up\u00a0amendments to the bill. The rapid succession of votes on each proposed change is dubbed a “vote-a-rama.”<\/p>\n Republican Senators filed nearly 600 amendments, but only brought forth a fraction of those for debate. It was enough to draw out the voting session for more than 24 hours,\u00a0keeping senators voting from from Friday morning into Saturday.<\/p>\n One issue, unemployment insurance, was stalled by Democratic senators for most of the day Friday as they negotiated behind closed doors,\u00a0focusing on the vote from Sen. Joe Manchin, a moderate Democrat from West Virginia\u00a0who expressed interest in plans from Republicans and Democrats.\u00a0<\/p>\n During the House’s session on Wednesday, before lawmakers began debating on the legislation,\u00a0Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene\u00a0forced the House to delay debating\u00a0and voting on the stimulus bill\u00a0by forcing a vote to adjourn House proceedings ahead of the debate. The effort failed.\u00a0<\/p>\n Signing COVID-19 relief\u00a0has been Biden’s chief legislative priority since\u00a0he began\u00a0his presidency.<\/p>\n He’s stressed the aid is sorely needed for Americans battling the economic impacts of the pandemic and repeatedly\u00a0pushed for Congress to pass the bill quickly.<\/p>\n On the campaign trail, and in the first hours of his presidency, Biden promised to pass massive relief in Congress.\u00a0<\/p>\n In announcing the American Rescue Plan on the same day as his inauguration, Biden called the smaller, bipartisan legislation passed in December “a down payment.”<\/p>\n The White House described the new legislation as “ambitious, but achievable, and will rescue the American economy and start beating the virus.”<\/p>\n Several polls show the latest package enjoys wide popularity, particularly the direct payments to Americans.<\/p>\n House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., praised the bill as part of Biden’s legacy, calling it the “Biden American Rescue Plan.”\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe will get to work immediately to deliver lifesaving resources springing from this bill as soon as it is passed and signed as we join President Biden. \u2026 in his promise that at last help is on the way,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Republicans in the Senate were successful in changing several key portions of the legislation.\u00a0<\/p>\n Some House Democrats griped\u00a0over the modifications\u00a0made to the legislation \u2013 particularly the removal of a $15 federal minimum wage hike\u00a0\u2013\u00a0when the bill came\u00a0back to their chamber for a\u00a0vote Wednesday. But those peeved\u00a0progressives set aside their misgivings, and approved the Senate changes.\u00a0<\/p>\n A federal hourly minimum wage increase was included in the version of the relief bill that was approved by the House last month. But it was stripped from the Senate version\u00a0after the Senate parliamentarian found\u00a0it to be against budget\u00a0rules. Senate Democrats’\u00a0attempt to reinsert a $15 minimum wage provision Friday also failed when eight Democratic caucus members voted with all Senate Republicans against Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders\u2019 proposal.<\/p>\n Like the House version, the Senate bill includes\u00a0$1,400 stimulus checks to Americans but it lowered the income eligibility for taxpayers getting the payments.\u00a0Under the Senate bill, the checks phase out for\u00a0individuals making $80,000 per year and $160,000 for couples.<\/p>\n Roughly 8 million fewer households will get a check under the Senate bill compared with what the House passed, according to an analysis from the Tax Policy Center.<\/p>\n The House bill extended federal unemployment benefits through August and increased that aid to $400 a week, but the final bill only extends the enhanced unemployment benefits through August at $300 a week.\u00a0<\/p>\n The House vote was the final legislative hurdle for the legislation.<\/p>\n It now goes to Biden, who will sign the bill into law Friday, the White House said.<\/p>\n “This legislation is about giving the backbone of this nation \u2013 the essential workers, the working people who built this country, the people who keep this country going \u2013 a fighting chance,” Biden said in a statement following the vote.\u00a0<\/p>\n “On Friday, I look forward to signing the American Rescue Plan into law at the White House \u2013 a people\u2019s law at the people\u2019s house.”<\/p>\n After the bill is signed into law, the IRS may begin delivering stimulus\u00a0checks within one to two weeks.<\/p>\n “Middle-class Western New York households will be getting a $1,400 check in the mail in about two weeks,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. “They should get them by the end of March, so it’ll be a nice Easter present for everybody.”<\/p>\n‘Socialism’: GOP reactions to legislation passing<\/h2>\n
1 Democrat voted against the bill twice<\/h2>\n
Republicans tried to slow\u00a0the bill down<\/h2>\n
A big win for Biden<\/h2>\n
Republicans successfully\u00a0changed\u00a0portions of the bill<\/h2>\n
What happens next?<\/h2>\n
Here are the major parts of the legislation<\/h2>\n