Lawmakers are beginning to work on amendments for the proposal of President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus plan to prepare it for the Senate.
The House of Representatives passed Biden’s stimulus plan, and Democrats are pushing for the bill to get through the Senate and to Biden by a March 14 deadline. March 14 will mark the expiration of jobless benefits. To keep the plan moving quickly, the Democratic Party resorted to budget reconciliation.
“Democrats have thin majorities in the House and the Senate and opted to try to pass Biden’s stimulus plan through a process known as budget reconciliation,” CNBC reported. “Reconciliation allows a party to pass a bill with a simple majority vote but limits what can be included in the bill to those items that have a significant impact on the federal deficit.”
The bill is predicted to be split down the middle by party lines in the Senate, so it will most likely not be the same bill that was passed by the House of Representatives.
“With the bill bound for a Senate split 50-50 between Democrats and Republicans, lawmakers will begin offering amendments to the House’s plan and will likely pass a different version of the bill they received,” CNBC reported.
Originally, the plan included an increase in the minimum wage to $15, but the minimum wage tax was taken out of the plan due to the fast-track budget rules that Democrats are using to pass the stimulus plan.
“The decision removes a major complication in the Senate and could speed approval of the rest of the package in the chamber,” Bloomberg reported. “In addition to getting the backing of all 50 senators who caucus with Democrats, the tax language also would have had to pass muster with the parliamentarian, the House and the administration and be signed by Biden — all in a two-week period.”
During a briefing last Saturday, President Biden seemed to have hope in the quick action of the Senate.
“If we act now — decisively, quickly and boldly — we can finally get ahead of this virus,” Biden said. “We can finally get our economy moving again.”
