‘Nothing good happens after midnight’: DC Reacts to $1.9 trillion Coronavirus Spending Bill; House Narrowly Passes Massive COVID-Response Bill, Including $15 Minimum Wage, and related stories

‘Nothing good happens after midnight’: DC reacts to $1.9 trillion coronavirus spending bill:

Republicans on Capitol Hill are fuming, while Democrats are cheering a $1.9 trillion spending package pushed through Congress after midnight.

The House voted 219-212 to pass the spending bill early Saturday in a partisan vote, with all Republicans voting against it and all Democrats, except for Kurt Schrader of Oregon and Jared Golden of Maine, voting in favor. The package includes a $15 minimum wage mandate.

The minimum wage mandate will be an issue in the Senate after Senate parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough said its inclusion violates special rules that Democrats hope to use to pass the spending package with just 51 votes instead of 60.

After debate on the package continued into the early morning hours, the House Judiciary Committee hinted that Democrats might have “something to hide.” —>READ MORE HERE

House Narrowly Passes Massive COVID-Response Bill, Including $15 Minimum Wage:

The House narrowly approved Democrats’ $1.9 trillion coronavirus-relief bill early Saturday morning, in a tight 219-212 vote that mostly fell along party lines.

The bill contains $1,400 direct payments for most Americans, $170 billion to colleges and K-12 schools to cover reopening costs, and $70 billion for coronavirus testing and vaccination programs. Additionally, the relief package allocates $350 billion in funding for state, local, and tribal governments.

President Biden has pushed for the bill’s passage, however Republicans opposed some of the provisions in the legislation, arguing they were clearly extraneous.

“This isn’t a relief bill. It takes care of Democrats’ political allies while it fails to deliver for American families,” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R, Calif.) told The Washington Post on Friday. “We already know what is the best stimulus plan out there: It is to fully reopen our economy. To do that, we need our economy to go back to work, back to school and back to health.” —>READ MORE HERE

Follow links below to related stories:

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House passes Joe Biden’s COVID relief bill with $1,400 stimulus checks, legislation heads to Senate

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Biden calls for ‘quick action’ from Senate on $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package

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