Senate inches toward COVID-19 vote after marathon session

Senators worked throughout the night Friday into Saturday as the chamber considered various amendments to the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package, with a final vote expected later in the day.

The chamber is holding a marathon voting session known as a vote-a-rama, where any senator can force a vote on potential changes to the mammoth relief package. Democrats have rejected a series of proposed GOP changes to the bill.

The Senate voted on more than 30 amendments or motions to alter the bill as of 11:15 a.m. on Saturday as the grueling session appeared to be taking its toll and stretched beyond 24 hours.

Tempers started to fray on the floor as sleep-deprived senators slogged their way through Republican-sponsored amendments, many of them intended to be used for political attacks at a later date.

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) vented his frustration after Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) offered an amendment that would block lawmakers’ pay when Congress fails to pass an annual budget.

“My colleague from Florida may not know it, but this is a budget. It’s a $1.9 trillion reconciliation budget, which in fact turns out to be the most significant piece of legislation for working people that has been passed in decades,” Sanders fumed.

“Unfortunately, my friends on the other side have used delaying tactics after delaying tactics. Obstruction, obstruction, obstruction,” he said.

At one point, Senate Health Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray (D-Wash.) ripped Sen. James Lankford’s (R-Okla.) amendment to ensure restrictions on publicly funded abortions as a shallow political attack.

“It is frustrating but not at all surprising that in the middle of a pandemic, as we are working to get urgently needed relief to our families, to our small businesses and our communities across the country, some Republicans would rather spend time launching political attacks,” she said.

Murray later slammed an amendment sponsored by Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) to block funding to schools that allow transgender athletes to participate in women’s sports.  

“Can’t we just have a little bit of heart and compassion in this world for someone who doesn’t look or live exactly like you?” Murray said with exasperation.

She called Tuberville’s proposal “simply an attempt to discriminate against transgender students.”

Democrats defeated the amendments sponsored by Scott, Lankford and Tuberville.

The floor debate grew heated again when Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), a potential candidate for president in 2024, offered an amendment that he said would block $1,400 stimulus checks from going to undocumented immigrants.

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) stood up to accuse Cruz of deliberately distorting payments the legislation would provide to families that have members who are undocumented immigrants.

“The statement of the senator from Texas is just plain false. False! Let me be clear: Undocumented immigrants do not have Social Security numbers, and they do not qualify for stimulus relief checks,” he said.

Durbin accused Cruz of attempting to “rile people up over something that is not true” because Republicans “want to be able to give speeches that say checks go to undocumented immigrants.”

The amendment was defeated by a party-line vote of 49 to 50.

Senators weighed the series of amendments after debate was held up on Friday for nearly 12 hours as Democratic leaders scrambled to save the massive relief proposal, the first major piece of legislation pushed by President Biden since he took office.

Presiding over the Senate as we work to pass President Biden’s Rescue Plan. No matter how long it takes, we will get this done. pic.twitter.com/rfJksBGUG4

— Senator Dick Durbin (@SenatorDurbin) March 6, 2021

Senators worked deep into the night proposing changes to the relief bill. At around 3:45 a.m., some senators were already discussing breakfast, with Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) seen walking up to Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) to ask him what food he planned to order.

Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) was spotted covered in a blanket and resting on a couch in the Senate cloakroom, and Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) appeared to doze for a few minutes in his chair on the floor as senators tried to get some rest during the nightlong session.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) made an unsuccessful push before midnight to adjourn the Senate until Saturday, punting debate on the bill after it sat in limbo for hours as Democrats tried to put together a proposal on unemployment benefits that all 50 Democrats could back.

“They want to begin the vote-a-rama that could have been done in daylight because of their own confusion and the challenges of getting together 50 people to agree on something when they could have doing it quicker on a bipartisan basis,” McConnell said. “So rather than start the voting at five minutes to 11, I move to adjourn until 10 a.m.”

Democrats, who hold a slim majority in the chamber, voted down the effort.

“I don’t care how long it takes or if it’s inconvenient. We are about to pass one of the most popular and important pieces of federal legislation in decades. I’m a happy warrior,” Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) tweeted shortly before 2 a.m.

Schumer pushed to negotiate a deal with Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) over the unemployment benefits, with Senate Democrats announcing an agreement Friday night after the hours-long delay.

Biden also got involved in talks to help break the impasse, with senators saying he called Manchin directly to help get him to back the proposal supported by the rest of the Democratic caucus.

The agreement reached by Democrats would provide a $300 per week unemployment payment through Sept. 6 and make the first $10,200 of benefits nontaxable for households that have an income below $150,000.

That amendment, from Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), was adopted in a party-line vote of 50 to 49 early Saturday morning.

The chamber had previously held just one vote on whether to add a minimum wage hike to the COVID-19 relief package. That proposal from Sanders, raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, was rejected.

In keeping open the vote on the minimum wage proposal for almost 12 hours, Democrats set a new record for the longest vote in modern Senate history.

Updated: 11:20 a.m.