Democratic lawmakers have passed a massive $3 trillion coronavirus aid package, the largest bill to ever move through Congress, but the Senate is likely to block the law, with Republicans deeming it a progressive “wishlist.”
The 1,800-page bill passed 208-199 on Friday in a vote largely along party lines, with all but 14 Democrats voting in its favor, joined by a single GOP rep – Peter King of New York.
Introduced by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) without consultation from lawmakers across the aisle, the expansive law will provide financial relief for state and local governments, hazard pay for essential workers and an extension of federal unemployment benefits, among other things.
Republicans have shown little interest in passing the package in its current form, with a number of lawmakers slamming it as a “political stunt” by the House Speaker and a buffet of partisan policies that have nothing to do with the pandemic. Barring major changes to the bill, the GOP-controlled Senate is unlikely to give it the green light.
Pelosi “published an 1,800-page seasonal catalog of left-wing oddities and called it a coronavirus relief bill,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) said of the proposal, after calling for a “pause” on negotiations on the aid bill to “see what’s working” and what isn’t in terms of relief. The House Speaker soon shot back, asking “Do you think this virus is taking a pause? Do you think that the rent takes a pause?”
Even if it did manage to make it through the Senate, the White House threatened to veto the bill ahead of Friday’s vote, giving it virtually no chance of becoming law. Several administration officials have signaled that President Donald Trump would support another round of direct payments to citizens, however, which also featured in an emergency spending bill passed in March.
Dubbed the “HEROES Act,” the bill is the fifth Covid-19 aid package proposed in Congress, with four others already pouring trillions of dollars into relief for unemployed workers, along with loans and liquidity to keep small businesses afloat.
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