After a lengthy—and dramatic—session, the Senate has amended, voted on and approved the next Covid-19 relief bill 50-49.
The Senate session, which took an impressive 25 hours, brought a few notable changes to the new stimulus package, including a change to extended unemployment benefits, stimulus check phaseouts and the elimination of a federal minimum wage hike. Lawmakers are racing to finalize the bill so President Joe Biden can sign it into law before current unemployment benefits expire on March 14.
This progress will be welcome news to the majority of Americans who support the stimulus package, and it brings Congress one step closer to providing much-needed aid as the pandemic reaches its one-year mark.
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The Stimulus Package Passed in the Senate, but With Some Changes
After a marathon process, called a vote-a-rama, which involved reading aloud the bill’s amendments and taking votes on each one, the Senate narrowly approved the package along partisan lines.
Drama ensued. In the middle of voting on amendments, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) caused a nearly nine-hour holdup after opposing the proposed extended unemployment insurance benefits, claiming it could disincentivize people from returning to work. Manchin’s impasse led to negotiation and compromise, with a revised amendment finally being approved in a 50-49 vote.
The new amendment means the federally funded unemployment benefits will now be $300 per week through Sept. 6, and makes the first $10,200 of benefits earned in 2020 (not 2021) non-taxed for households earning below $150,000 per year (that threshold is for all filers, including single, married filing jointly and heads of households). Individuals who already filed their taxes for 2020 can file an amended return to receive the tax forgiveness. The House legislation had the benefits slated at $400 per week.
The new unemployment benefits provision expires about a month earlier than what Democrats originally hoped for.
Another notable change in the Senate’s version of the stimulus bill are quicker phase-outs for stimulus checks, as reported on Wednesday. These payments will phase out completely at the following income levels (which are lower than what was in the original version of the bill): $80,000 AGI for single taxpayers, $160,000 AGI for married filing jointly taxpayers and $120,000 AGI for heads of household.
Stimulus Check Calculator: Income Limits Lowered
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Read more: $1,400 Stimulus Check Calculator: See How Much You Might Receive
One early casualty of the bill was the proposal to more than double the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $15 an hour. Elizabeth MacDonough, Senate parliamentarian, determined on Thursday the provision could not be included under budget reconciliation, a special tool that would allow the package to be passed with a simple majority vote of the Senate, rather than needing 60 votes as in the regular legislation process. Senate Democrats made a last-ditch effort to squeeze a minimum wage increase back into the bill, but the amendment failed to pass.
Read more: What You Need To Know About The Minimum Wage Debate
The stimulus package comes at a time where Americans are hopeful for the end of the pandemic, but the financial damage continues to pile up. A December study by the University of Notre Dame, the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy and the Wilson Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunities found that nearly 8 million Americans have fallen into poverty since the start of the pandemic.
The unemployment rate sits at 6.3%, with 745,000 initial unemployment claims during the last week of February. However, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell says the true unemployment rate, which would factor in classification errors made by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, is more like 10%. Hiring was stronger than anticipated in February, particularly in the hospitality industry as states start to relax social distancing rules.
Though voted on and approved by the Senate, the bill will need to return to the House for approval before it’s passed to Biden’s desk to be signed into law. The House aims to vote on the bill on Tuesday, according to reports. Current federally-funded unemployment benefits expire on March 14, which is just eight days away—putting millions of Americans at risk of a lapse in receiving additional crucial aid.
