Senate Democrats Win And Promise More COVID Relief Is Coming In 2021

Last updated on July 18th, 2023 at 12:26 pm

Senate Democrats beat the Republican effort to sabotage the FED’s emergency lending power and promised more COVID relief in 2021.

Video of Senate Democratic Leader Schumer speaking on the Senate floor:

Leader Schumer said:

The Senator from Pennsylvania made an 11th hour demand to curtail the authority of the Fed to respond to economic crises, potentially leaving the Fed with less authority than it had even prior to the pandemic. The language in his provision was so broad, the intent seemed to be to sabotage the incoming administration’s ability to stabilize the economy and save jobs.

That was completely unacceptable to Democrats. But late last night, the logjam was broken.

Sen. Toomey accepted my compromise proposal to remove the dangerous, “similar to,” language in his bill that was overly broad. We sent the Senator far more limited new language around 8 p.m. last night and it was accepted a few hours later with a few technical changes. As a result, the Federal Reserve will retain its tools and authority in the event of a true emergency.

Now, this compromise should not have taken as long as it did and frankly it was irresponsible to threaten the entire package with this ideological attempt to limit the Fed and Treasury’s powers in an emergency.

….

So let me be very clear about one thing: this bill will not be the final word on Congressional Covid-relief. When this chamber gavels back in 2021, we must pick up immediately where we left off. We must protect people’s jobs—whether they work for a company or a local government; whether they live in blue states or red states; whether they’re office employees or teachers, bus drivers and firefighters.

The roughly $1 billion package is not going to be the last COVID relief bill to be passed by the Senate. If Democrats win the two Georgia Senate runoffs, one can expect a bill like the House-passed HEROES Act to quickly be passed by the Senate and signed by President Biden.

Democrats didn’t back down. They made McConnell and Senate Republicans blink and gave the American people a preview of how the power dynamic in the Senate is going to change, no matter what the outcome is in Georgia.

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Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

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