Senate Republicans are expected to force Democrats to vote on a variety of potentially uncomfortable topics in the coming days, taking advantage of the rules of the budgetary reconciliation process that Democrats are using to advance President Biden’s stimulus plan for coronavirus while bypassing a obstruction.
The debate on the budget resolution, which started on Wednesday, continues in the Senate on Thursday. After that time expires – Whip from Senate minority John Thune, RS.D. predicted that it will happen right after lunch – a process called the vote-a-rama begins.
During that time, any senator has the right to introduce an amendment to the resolution, which can result in dozens of votes on various provisions going late at night and even Friday morning.
Republicans are strongly opposed to the fact that Democrats are using reconciliation to promote stimulation of the coronavirus and therefore plan to use vote-a-rama as a way to punish Democrats by extracting a pound of meat by forcing them to uncomfortable votes.
Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell of Ky. Walks to speak at the Senate plenary at the Capitol in Washington, Monday, January 25, 2021. (AP Photo / Susan Walsh)
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“The new president talks a lot about unity, but his White House team and Congressional leadership are working from the opposite plan,” said Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., On the UN reconciliation process. budget. “We will be discussing the facts … The Senate Republicans will be ready and waiting with a series of amendments to improve the hurried procedural stage that is being blocked.”
He added: “We will be putting senators on the record about whether taxpayers should fund checks for illegal immigrants … whether Democrats should raise taxes on small businesses in the midst of this historic crisis … and whether generous federal funding should to be poured into school districts where unions refuse to allow schools to open. And that’s just a small sample. “
In fact, just minutes after McConnell’s speech, Senator Josh Hawley. R-Mo., Presented an amendment that would oppose federal funding for schools that do not bring children back to classrooms.
“Despite overwhelming evidence that schools can reopen safely, supporters of supporters are using children’s education as a club to boost their radical agendas,” Hawley said in a statement along with the amendment. “The effect on working-class children and families was absolutely devastating. The federal government should end this two-tier educational system for those who have and those who do not, by encouraging schools to reopen safely.”
Senator Steve Daines, R-Mont., However, announced that he is leading seven amendments to the reconciliation process and co-sponsoring three.
US Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) listens as Supreme Court-appointed Judge Amy Coney Barrett testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee on the second day of his Supreme Court confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill on October 13, 2020 in Washington, DC. Hawley said on Wednesday that he was presenting an amendment to oppose government funding for school districts that do not receive children in classrooms. (Anna Moneymaker-Pool / Getty Images)
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Among them are amendments that defend the reversal of the president’s decision to cancel the Keystone XL pipeline; resumption of oil and gas leasing on federal lands; stop any tax increases while the pandemic is still going on; preventing the US government from using taxpayer money to implement the Paris Climate Agreement; and more.
Senator Tom Cotton, R-Ark., Meanwhile, said in a statement that he would submit amendments to support funding for the U.S. nuclear weapons program; oppose taxpayer funding being used for abortion internationally and in national non-profit organizations; oppose illegal immigrants from using health options supported by the US government; and support the maintenance of the number of Supreme Court justices at nine.
“Republicans are happy to work with Democrats to bring relief from COVID-19 to the American people, but we cannot and will not support a bill that redirects funds to longstanding Democratic priorities,” said Cotton. “My amendments are intended to ensure that the American people – not the Senate Democrats’ extreme left policies – are protected.”
Not all amendments that are introduced will have a plenary vote during vote-a-rama. And some can be dismissed in opposition to what is called the Byrd rule – a rule that says that anything passed during budget reconciliation must have something to do with the federal budget in some way.
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But the wide range of amendments that Republican senators said they would introduce on Wednesday indicates that they plan to make the budgetary reconciliation process as painful as possible for Democrats. Republicans condemned the action of invoking reconciliation as a partisan maneuver to avoid working with them to alleviate the coronavirus.
Probably one of the hottest topics during the reconciliation debate is the reopening of schools, which Republicans seem to have decided is a winning issue for them. McConnell not only devoted most of his speech on Wednesday to criticizing Democrats and unions about the slow reopening of schools, but Senator John Cornyn, R-Texas, also gave a speech on the subject.
New York Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer takes the elevator to the US Capitol on Friday, January 22, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo / Manuel Balce Ceneta)
The White House again emphasized to Fox News on Tuesday that it is committed to delivering on its promise to put children in classrooms in Biden’s first 100 days, despite union pressure easing its efforts in the first few weeks.
Meanwhile, Democrats have accused Republicans of withholding money that could go to schools to help them open personally, as well as money for local governments and other sectors of the economy that they say are sorely needed.
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“A safe learning environment also means personal protective equipment,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn .. “Barriers like those we see in restaurants and other public places – plexiglass and other types of partitions. And these types of essential equipment are the reason why we are defending US $ 130 billion for our schools ”.
Republicans say that a lot of federal money has already been used to help reopen schools and that this is just “moving goals.” But Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer, DNY, said in the Senate on Wednesday that more needs to be done.
“The $ 1.9 trillion budget resolution was designed to meet the needs of a country that has been devastated by disease and recession for almost a year,” he said. “Secretary Yellen told the Democratic bench yesterday that she believes that if Congress does not devote the necessary resources to meet the needs of the American people and survive this crisis, we will see long-term scars on our economy, and our country would be mired in the crisis. COVID for years. “
Jason Donner of Fox News contributed to this report.