National Review
Manchin defends COVID relief bill: Republicans made ‘huge amount of contributions’
Senator Joe Manchin (D., W. Va.) On Sunday defended the relief bill COVID-19 that passed the Senate without Republican support on Saturday, saying the move does not mean an end to bipartisanship, as the Republicans “had an enormous amount of input.” The moderate Democrat’s comments came during an appearance on ABC’s This Week in response to a question by co-anchor Martha Raddatz about whether bipartisanship seems “a false hope” after “Biden did not get a single Republican vote for a package of help from a pandemic. “” Not at all, “replied Manchin.” The first group of people that President Biden brought to the White House was ten of my friends and colleagues, ten Republicans to see what their idea was. ” He added that the group of Republican lawmakers “submitted a proposal”, but Biden “felt that we needed to do much more.” “This is his prerogative and I support him with that, but with that, we have received many contributions from Republican friends throughout the process, “he said.” Many of the changes we made that were basically included in this process came from working together with my Republican and Democratic colleagues. ” “They made a huge contribution, but they didn’t get there in the end,” he said. In January, ten Republicans, including Senators Susan Collins (Maine), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Mitt Romney (Utah) and Rob Portman (Ohio) ) proposed their own framework for the COVID-19 relief package and asked Biden to work alongside them in drafting the legislation. The group proposed a smaller, more targeted $ 600 billion relief bill compared to the broad Biden’s $ 1.9 trillion proposal, which was passed by the Senate with a simple majority vote on Saturday, after Democrats decided to use budgetary reconciliation to approve the bill without Republican support. At that time, Portman noted that any plan end that Republicans would agree with would be “less than $ 1.9 [trillion] because much of what the administration has established has nothing to do with COVID-19. ”The bill passed in the Senate includes $ 130 billion in funds for K-12 schools, designed to help districts reduce class sizes to accommodate social distance, improve ventilation systems and make other changes. A measure introduced by Senator Maggie Hassan (D., NH) requires schools that receive funding to provide plans to reopen in 30 days. However, the relief bill does not require schools to reopen for face-to-face learning. It also contains checks for $ 1,400 for Americans who earn less than $ 75,000 a year, while couples who earn $ 150,000 or less will receive two checks. Payments are eliminated for individuals who earn $ 80,000 and couples who earn $ 160,000. Federal unemployment benefits will continue at $ 300 a week until September 6 according to legislation – the result of a deal after Manchin opposed a $ 400 a week increase through October that House Democrats wanted . The bill also allocates $ 350 billion to state and local governments, in measures that Republicans have criticized as “blue state bailouts”. Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) Criticized the bill and its approval. “The Senate has never spent $ 2 trillion more randomly or through a less rigorous process,” said McConnell. The legislation will now return to the House, which must approve the version of the bill in the Senate before sending it to President Biden’s desk.