The House approved $ 1.9 trillion from President Biden coronavirus relief package on Saturday morning almost entirely on party lines. The bill now goes to the Senate, although it includes an increase in the minimum wage that the Senate parliamentarian decided on Thursday cannot be included if Congress uses the budgetary reconciliation process.
Two Democrats, Kurt Schrader of Oregon and Jared Golden of Maine, voted with Republicans in the 219-212 vote. No Republicans voted for the bill.
The debate over the bill lasted nearly 1 am on Saturday morning.
The project, called the American Rescue Plan, includes $ 1,400 in direct checks for Americans earning less than $ 75,000, a supplementary unemployment bonus of $ 400 a week, money for vaccine distribution and funding to help schools and state governments and locations.
Although previous coronavirus aid projects were approved with bipartisan support, the project was expected to pass the House along party lines, as Republicans criticized the high price and the inclusion of provisions they consider unrelated to the crisis .
The House vote came days after the United States passed the terrible milestone. 500,000 American deaths of the coronavirus. Millions of people lost their jobs due to the economic crisis, and the supplementary unemployment benefits established by Congress at the end of last year are expected to expire in mid-March.
The American Rescue Plan is widely popular among Americans, gaining the support of Republican voters, as well as Democrats and independents. A Morning Consult / Politico poll released on Thursday shows that 76% of Americans support the package, including 60% of Republicans.
“The need is great. The opportunity is there,” spokeswoman Nancy Pelosi told reporters on Thursday.
The bill also includes a clause that raises the federal minimum wage to $ 15 an hour by 2025, although the Senate Parliamentarian ruled that the bill could not include an increase in the federal minimum wage if Congress uses the budgetary reconciliation process.
Congressional Democrats opted to use the procedural maneuver known as budgetary reconciliation to pass the bill, allowing it to be passed by only a simple majority in the Senate. Most legislation requires 60 votes in the Senate to pass, so the budget reconciliation process allows Democrats – who hold a majority of 50 seats – to pass the bill without a Republican vote.
There are strict rules for using the budget reconciliation process, such as the “Byrd rule”, which requires that all provisions of the bill be budget-related and should not increase the federal deficit after a 10-year budget window. Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough decided that raising the minimum wage did not fit the budget reconciliation parameters.
In a statement on Thursday, Pelosi said MacDonough’s decision was “disappointing”.
“House Democrats believe that raising the minimum wage is necessary. Therefore, this provision will remain in the American Floor Rescue Plan tomorrow,” said Pelosi. The federal minimum wage of $ 7.25 has not been increased since 2009.
However, it is not clear whether the minimum wage increase clause would have been included in the final bill, even if MacDonough had decided that it was possible to include a salary increase in the account. At least two Democrats, Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, have expressed concern about raising the minimum wage. Without the support of all 50 Democrats in the Senate, the project’s prospects would be doomed.
As soon as the Senate considers its version of the bill, progressives in the House may threaten to suspend support for the final package, unless some kind of minimum wage increase is included. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez suggested on Thursday that progressive members of the House should pressure their own party in a similar way to conservative Democrats in the Senate.
“There are progressive Democrats who have that muscle in the House,” said Ocasio-Cortez. “If we, as a party, decide to give up on our promise to raise the minimum wage, I think this is extraordinarily spurious and is something that, as a party, we could have a new conversation about how to fight for.”
Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, president of the House of Progressive Deputies, told reporters on Friday that the Senate should consider removing legislative obstruction, which would allow any legislation to pass the Senate by a simple majority. Using budgetary reconciliation is an alternative solution that allows lawmakers to pass bills with a simple majority, without torpedoing obstruction.
“The Senate rules were really established to preserve the power of the minority,” said Jayapal. “Now we have to show that it will make a difference not to fall into the tyranny of the minority that exists in the Senate.”
Jayapal and other progressives pressured Vice President Kamala Harris to overturn the decision of the parliamentarian in her capacity as president of the Senate.
A senior Democratic aide confirmed to CBS News that Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer is looking to add a new clause to penalize large corporations that do not pay their workers at least a $ 15 minimum wage, an idea that seems be gaining strength.
Senator Bernie Sanders, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee and an outspoken advocate of raising the minimum wage, said on Thursday that he would introduce an amendment to the package to “remove tax deductions from large, profitable corporations that do not pay workers in at least US. $ 15 an hour and to provide small businesses with the incentives they need to raise wages. “
“This amendment must be included in this reconciliation project,” said Sanders.
Other senators appear to be open to punishing corporations for not paying their workers enough wages. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden suggested a “plan B” approach to the minimum wage in a statement on Friday, which “would impose a 5 percent penalty on a large corporation’s total payroll if any worker earned less than a certain amount. “
“At the same time, I want to encourage the smallest of small businesses – those with middle class owners – to raise workers’ wages. My plan would provide an income tax credit equal to 25% of wages, up to $ 10,000 a year per employer, for small businesses that pay higher wages to their workers, “said Wyden.
Republican Senator Josh Hawley, who joined Sanders in asking for $ 2,000 direct checks late last year, also introduced a bill that would require companies with revenues of $ 1 billion or more to pay their employees $ 15 an hour.
The amendments only require a simple majority to be added to the legislation, so an amendment on the minimum wage is possible, provided that all 50 Democrats approve it.
Raising the minimum wage is widely popular, with a 2019 survey by the Pew Research Center showing that 67% of Americans support raising the minimum wage to $ 15. It even has support in some red states, as demonstrated by an election initiative in Florida to raise the minimum wage increase to $ 15 by 2026, which was approved with the support of more than 60% of voters in the last election.
Jack Turman contributed to this report