U. S. Senate Democrats on Thursday blocked a slender aid program opposed to coronaviruses, calling it “too inadequate” for millions of Americans suffering and raising the possibility that no new aid could be approved before the November presidential election.
The Republican-led Senate bill failed in a party line procedural vote, 52-47. It took 60 votes to trump lockdown tactics in the 100-member chamber.
The move is a dramatic relief from the $3 trillion bill that the Democratic-led House of Representatives approved in May, but never passed through the Senate.
Now, Democrats have opposed the much smaller Republican measure, which amounts to about $500 billion, adding $300 a week for millions of unemployed Americans, with $600 expiring in July.
Democrats complained that the new move involved a new budget for cities and states, with no $1,200 second-round stimulus controls for individual Americans and inadequate food aid.
“It’s more than enough. It’s absolutely inadequate,” Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said before the vote.
Schumer said the Republican bill, designed without the contribution of Democrats, “designed to fail” and only served to protect some vulnerable Republicans who sought to be noticed by voting for federal aid for troubled families.
“Instead of using the force of the federal government to help our citizens have a singles crisis in their lives, the Senate Republicans turned a blind eye, crossed their fingers, hoping they had nothing to do,” Schumer said.
After his bill failed, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell lashed out at Democrats.
“All Senate Democrats voted against billions of dollars in COVID-19 relief,” McConnell tweeted, noting that they were blocking the budget for “schools, tests, vaccines, unemployment insurance, and the Small Business Pay Check Protection Program.
“Its purpose is clear: not to American families before the elections,” he said.
Earlier this week, the White House said it was positive that warring factions in Congress could succeed in an agreement on new emergency aid on the occasion of a pandemic before the November 3 election between President Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden, but that’s now. Look forward.
Lawmakers still want to come together to pass the law that the federal government continues to operate in the new fiscal year, which begins October 1.
Suggestions have circulated that Covid-related relief could be included in this bill, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected the idea.
“It may not be there, no, ” said Pelosi to reporters. “These negotiations are independent of that. “
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