Senate Nears Saturday Passage After All-Nighter: Stimulus Update
Bloomberg
3/6/2021
Bloomberg News
(Bloomberg) -- The Senate is on track to pass President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus bill as early as midday Saturday after a compromise reduced added unemployment benefits to $300 a week, one of several ways moderate Democrats shaped the bill to be less generous than the House version.
Democrats also fought off a raft of Republican amendments to cut state and local funding, redirect Amtrak funding, end aid to indebted minority farmers, and stop grants for non-profit entities. The amendment process began after 11 a.m. on Friday.
But the chamber voted to include the deal Democrats reached within their own ranks to extend until Sept. 6 the $300 weekly federal supplement for jobless benefits, down from $400 a week in the House bill. Negotiations on that amendment in turn caused a separate vote on a minimum wage to set a record for the longest vote in Senate history, dragging on for nearly 12 hours as Democrats tried to keep their caucus united.