WASHINGTON – The $ 1.9 trillion economic stimulus plan approved by the Senate on Saturday follows the outline of the pandemic aid package that President Biden proposed, but the senators made a series of notable changes that narrowed the bill.
Although the House approved a version of the bill that kept Biden’s proposals intact, the Senate omitted an increase in the minimum wage he had included, reduced eligibility for the next round of stimulus checks and limited how much Americans will receive in supplementary unemployment benefits in the coming months.
The changes made by the Senate are likely to stay, as the version approved by the House is scheduled to go to the House for final approval on Tuesday. The bill would then go to Mr. Biden for his signature.
Here are some of the main differences between the accounts of the two chambers.
The increase in the minimum wage has been withdrawn.
The House bill would gradually raise the federal minimum wage, which is currently $ 7.25 an hour, to $ 15 an hour by 2025. The Senate bill does not incorporate a salary increase.
The Senate congressman said last month that the salary increase violated the strict rules governing what can be included in bills that have gone through a special process known as budgetary reconciliation – prompting Democrats to drop it from the package.
Democrats used the reconciliation process because it allowed the bill to pass the Senate with a simple majority, protecting it from an obstruction – which requires 60 votes to be defeated – and thus eliminating the need to get Republican support. .
On Friday, an amendment to add back the minimum wage increase fell well short of the 60 votes needed to do so, failing 42 to 58 in a procedural vote. Seven Democrats and an independent who joined them joined all 50 Republicans in the opposition, signaling that the salary increase lacked sufficient support to clear the Senate, regardless of the parliamentarian’s decision.
Stimulus checks will be available to fewer Americans
House and Senate bills would provide another round of direct payments to Americans, with payments of up to $ 1,400 to hundreds of millions of people. But the Senate bill imposes stricter income limits on who is eligible, disqualifying millions of people from receiving a payment.
Both accounts would provide payments of $ 1,400 to individuals with an income of up to $ 75,000, single parents with an income of up to $ 112,500 and couples with an income of up to $ 150,000. Gradually lower payments would go to those who earned more, decreasing as income levels increased and disappearing entirely for those who were above a certain income threshold.
But while the House set the limit at $ 100,000 for individuals, $ 150,000 for single parents and $ 200,000 for couples, the Senate reduced them to appease moderates who wanted payments to be more targeted.
Biden’s stimulus plan
Instead, the Senate bill would set the limit at $ 80,000 for individuals, $ 120,000 for single parents, and $ 160,000 for couples, meaning that those who earn more than that will not receive checks.
The unemployment payment would remain at $ 300 a week, instead of increasing to $ 400.
The last stimulus package approved in December partially restored the federal unemployment payment that had expired last summer, offering $ 300 a week and extending it until March 14. The House bill increased the benefit in line with Biden’s proposal, but the Senate, where moderates refused to raise the payment, left the same.
The House version would provide a more generous benefit of $ 400 a week through August 29. The Senate measure would provide $ 300 a week until September 6.
The Senate bill would also exempt $ 10,200 in unemployment benefits received in 2020 from the federal income tax for families earning less than $ 150,000.
Both the House and the Senate also sought to help workers who lost their jobs to maintain the health insurance coverage provided by the employer, but the Senate bill is more generous. The House measure would cover 85 percent of premiums through a program called COBRA until September, while the Senate measure would cover the total cost of those premiums.
A rail project, student loan debt and more
The two projects differ in a variety of other areas. The Senate added a provision that would exempt student loan forgiveness from income tax until 2025, a move that comes amid pressure on Biden to cancel student loan debt through executive action.
Funding for a rail project in Northern California’s Silicon Valley, which was criticized by Republicans, was included in the House bill, but removed from the Senate measure after the congressman spoke out against it.
Another transportation-related budget in the House bill that drew criticism from Republicans, $ 1.5 million for the Seaway International Bridge between upstate New York and Canada, was taken from the Senate version as well.