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Senate passes $2 trillion coronavirus relief bill bogged down by days of partisan wrangling
US Senators have passed a much-delayed $2 trillion stimulus bill, aimed at bolstering the US economy as the country is rattled by coronavirus lockdowns. The mammoth package was approved after days of bitter partisan fighting.
Senators moved to vote on the bill late Wednesday night after the last hurdle preventing its passage – an amendment put forward by four Republican senators to curb the legislation’s generous unemployment provisions – was eliminated, failing to gain the necessary 60 yeas.
The amendment, filed by Senator Ben Sasse (R-Nebraska), sought to limit the payouts so that the unemployed would not receive more money than they would have otherwise through their jobs.Sasse, along with three other GOP Senators – Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina), Tim Scott (R-South Carolina) and Rick Scott (R-Florida) – argued that the bill, which envisions $600 a week for those forced out of work by coronavirus lockdowns on top of regular unemployment insurance payments, discourages people from going to work at all.
"You're literally incentivizing taking people out of the workforce at a time when weneed critical infrastructure supplied with workers" Graham said.
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