The third stimulus package, totaling around $2 trillion, that will provide direct aid to Americans has finally passed the Senate Wednesday after what felt like an eternity. Ultimately, the bill passed with a unanimous vote of 96-0. However, there was much tension in the air and multiple threats to delay the bill.
A primary contention in the relief bill centered around additional unemployment benefits that would pay laid-off workers more than they would make working. Republicans argued that this would create an incentive for workers to not work, and four of them wanted to hold up the bill to fix the issue. Ultimately, the Senate voted on a proposed amendment to remove excess unemployment funding, which ended up not passing.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT) went on a little rant while discussing this particular point, which, naturally, riled up Bernie fans.
.@BernieSanders ON FIRE on the Senate floor: "And now I find that some of my Republican colleagues are very distressed they're very upset that somebody is making $10-$12 bucks an hour might end up with a paycheck for four months more than they received last week… pic.twitter.com/WIMD7Lzp69
— People for Bernie (@People4Bernie) March 26, 2020
Sanders also threatened to delay the bill if additional restrictions weren’t put onto the $500 billion allocated towards emergency business loans. Throughout the day, stocks steadily climbed until he spoke out. Then, the market went down.
Stocks tumble into the close after Bernie Sanders threatens to put a hold on the coronavirus stimulus bill; Nasdaq turns negative and Dow up only 480 points after surging 1,300 earlier https://t.co/kumM5Z3mLD pic.twitter.com/tw7O9qsyCw
— CNBC Now (@CNBCnow) March 25, 2020
However, the bill finally made its way through the Senate and onto the House. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) promised to “quickly” pass through the legislation. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) expects that the House will finalize the funding bill on Friday. We can only hope.
Thank you to our friends at Right Wing for contributing this piece.
