Tag: U.S. Senate

Demands for workers-first stimulus grow as senate GOP fails to ram through $500 billion corporate ‘slush fund’

AlterNet logoSenate Republicans late Sunday failed to force through a $1.8 trillion coronavirus stimulus package that Democratic lawmakers, union leaders, and progressive advocacy groups condemned as a massive bailout for corporate America that would have done little to address the urgent economic and medical needs of ordinary people.

A procedural motion to advance the Republican bill, formally known as the CARES Act, received just 47 votes Sunday, well short of the 60 needed for passage. Every Senate Democrat present voted no.

“Republicans can’t seriously expect us to tell people in our communities who are suffering that we shortchanged hospitals, students, workers, and small businesses but gave big corporations hundreds of billions of dollars in a secretive slush fund.”
—Sen. Patty Murray

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) scheduled another procedural vote on the legislation for Monday morning at 9:45 am ET as talks over the bill continued through the evening Sunday. Continue reading.

Senate falls far short of votes needed to advance coronavirus bill, as clash between Republicans and Democrats intensifies

Washington Post logoWith Democrats opposed, procedural vote fails on $1.8 trillion package in Senate; talks continue, but Pelosi indicates she will move forward on her own

Senate Democrats blocked a massive coronavirus stimulus bill from moving forward Sunday as partisan disputes raged over the legislation aimed at arresting the economy’s precipitous decline.

Lawmakers had hoped to pass the enormous $1.8 trillion bill by Monday, but Sunday night they were scrambling to revive talks, with the stock market poised for another sharp drop and households and businesses fretting about an uncertain future.

Negotiations continued even as the initial procedural vote fell short; 47 senators voted in favor and 47 were opposed. The tally was well short of the 60 votes needed to move forward. The number of “aye” votes was especially low because five Republicans are quarantined over coronavirus fears.

No deal yet on stimulus as stock market teeters on the edge

Supporters mustered only 47 votes of the 60 required to take up measure

Negotiations on an economic stimulus measure that had hit about $1.8 trillion by Sunday — and probably climbing — were set to continue Monday morning, top Senate and White House officials said late Sunday night.

“I think we’re very close. The teams are going to work through the night. We’re going to regroup the principals in the morning,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said. “We’re going to work very hard to get this done tomorrow.”

White House legislative affairs director Eric Ueland said administration negotiators would be back up at the Capitol by 9 a.m. to continue talks. Continue reading.

Hopes for quick coronavirus stimulus deal break down

The Hill logoHopes for a quick bipartisan deal on a massive stimulus package quickly unraveled on Sunday as lawmakers remain deadlocked on several key provisions.

A meeting between the four congressional leaders and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin failed to break the stalemate as Democrats voiced concern that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is trying to jam them with a bill they have not signed off on.

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said as he left the meeting that they did not have a deal. Continue reading.

Sticking points force stimulus package talks to spill into Sunday

The Hill logoSenate negotiators will return to work on Sunday after failing to reach a bipartisan agreement “in principle” Saturday evening on a massive stimulus package, despite reporting significant areas of consensus.

Lawmakers had hoped to finalize a deal on Saturday evening after missing a deadline Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) had set for the end of the day Friday.

Instead, negotiators will work to resolve disagreements in several areas ahead of a key procedural vote scheduled for 3 p.m. Sunday. Continue reading.

This senator sold up to $1.6 million in stocks before market crash — after reassuring us about coronavirus

AlterNet logoSoon after he offered public assurances that the government was ready to battle the coronavirus, the powerful chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Richard Burr, sold off a significant percentage of his stocks, unloading between $582,029 and $1.56 million of his holdings on Feb. 13 in 29 separate transactions.

As the head of the intelligence committee, Burr, a North Carolina Republican, has access to the government’s most highly classified information about threats to America’s security. His committee was receiving daily coronavirus briefings around this time, according to a Reuters story.

A week after Burr’s sales, the stock market began a sharp decline and has lost about 30% since. Continue reading.

Stimulus plan hinges on McConnell, Schumer repairing toxic relationship

The Hill logoThe next stimulus deal will require extensive negotiations between Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) — two lawmakers who don’t have much of a working relationship.

GOP leaders are zeroing in on a massive economic stimulus package that’s agreeable to Senate Republicans as a whole, but talks with Democrats are just getting started. That means work on the bill will spill over into next week.

Schumer said on MSNBC Thursday that he expected to begin meeting with McConnell later in the day. Continue reading.

Senate passes House’s coronavirus aid bill, sending it to Trump

The Hill logoThe Senate passed the House’s coronavirus aid package on Wednesday, sending it to President Trump, who is expected to sign it. 

Senators voted 90-8 on the bill that passed the House in a middle-of-the-night Saturday vote but needed dozens of pages of corrections and changes, which cleared the chamber on Monday.

The measure, which the Joint Committee on Taxation estimates will cost $104 billion, is the second package that Congress has passed amid growing concerns about the widespread coronavirus outbreak in the United States that has already bludgeoned the economy. Continue reading.

Revised coronavirus aid bill headed to Senate, finally

Some Republicans concerned about bill’s mandate on paid leave

White House officials and the top Senate Republican said late Monday economic aid to households affected by the COVID-19 pandemic is on track despite concerns among the GOP rank-and-file in that chamber about the impact of paid leave requirements on small businesses.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said after huddling with senators late Monday that hangups in the House over a package of “technical” fixes to the bill passed by the House early Saturday morning were on the verge of being resolved. Minutes later, Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas — one of 40 Republicans to vote “no” on the bill initially — dropped his objection and the corrections were adopted by unanimous consent.

Gohmert had held out for much of the day’s pro forma House session, arguing he hadn’t seen what the actual fixes were. Finally the changes were revealed, with a 7:38 p.m. time stamp, and by 8:10 p.m. Gohmert was on the floor giving the resolution his blessing, telling the nearly empty chamber “what are being called technical corrections make the bill better than it was when it got passed in the wee hours Saturday morning.” Continue reading.

Senate could push through ‘Phase 3’ coronavirus rescue plan this week

Steven Mnuchin will meet with Republican senators to discuss the plan Tuesday.

Even before Congress has finished work on a second stimulus bill to deal with the coronavirus crisis, senators from both parties and the White House are already talking about a third package, which will come with a price tag that runs into the hundreds of billions of dollars.

And few people, from President Donald Trump on down, are complaining about the cost — knowing the country faces a potentially unprecedented economic hit from the pandemic.

But perhaps the most shocking fact is that the normally slow-moving Senate could pass the “Phase 3” bill this week, according to several GOP senators. Continue reading.