U.S. Senate passes budget plan to advance Biden's $1.9 trillion COVID aid package
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Joe Biden's drive to enact a $1.9 trillion coronavirus aid bill gained momentum on Friday as the U.S. Senate narrowly approved a budget blueprint allowing Democrats to push the legislation through Congress in coming weeks with or without Republican support.
At the end of about 15 hours of debate and back-to-back votes on dozens of amendments, the Senate found itself in a 50-50 partisan deadlock over passage of the budget plan. That deadlock was broken by Vice President Kamala Harris, whose "yes" vote provided the win for Democrats.
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But as the hours wore on and dozens of amendments were offered, exhausted senators mainly spent the night disposing of Republican ideas, such as ending all U.S. foreign aid and prohibiting Congress from expanding the U.S. Supreme Court beyond its current nine justices.
Even with over 400,000 dead, and the urgent need to build out a plan to get vaccines into people, the GQP is still slavishly devoted to their only functioning idea: partisan domination.
Good on the Democrats for staying laser focused on helping America. Not Jewish-space-laser-focused. That would be asking too much. But still, incredible early progress by our Democratic leaders in Congress and the White House. Still lots of hard work ahead but we should always remember to celebrate our victories.