Stimulus Update: VP Harris Fast-Tracks $1400 Checks And Other COVID Aid

After a marathon session, the Senate on Friday passed a budget measure that moves President Joe Biden’s $1.9 million relief plan through the chamber -- a bill that, if passed by the House, would send $1,400 stimulus checks to many households.

Vice President Kamala Harris cast the deciding 51^st vote in the Senate early Friday, her first tie-breaker in the deadlocked chamber, after a 15-hour session where lawmakers combed through the various amendments tacked on by both Republicans and Democrats.

An amendment tacked on to the latest measure by Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Joe Manchin, D-W. Va., would bar wealthier families from getting the proposed $1,400 stimulus checks.

But The Associated Press reported that amendment is largely moot because it doesn’t define what qualifies as wealthy. Earlier stimulus measures scaled down the relief available for individual taxpayers making more than $75,000 annually and for married couples with more than $150,000 in income.

"The decent compassionate thing is for us to target the relief to our neighbors who are struggling every day to get by," Manchin was quoted by the Reuters news service as saying.

Several other amendments tacked on were related to wish-list issues such as abortion regulation, immigration and schools, issues that have little to do with stimulus efforts. By the count of the Bloomberg news agency, there were 41 different roll-call votes on the various add-ons.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont and chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, said passing the budget measure means many American families are saved from the brink of “economic collapse,” the AP added.

Lawmakers spent much of the latter half of 2020 arguing over the size of the stimulus payments, but eventually passed a watered-down bill that saw $600 checks for individual taxpayers and bolstered state-level unemployment benefits.

The measure now returns to the House for a vote. If passed, it would move through committee before the final bill is realized. Biden is expected to discuss the issue later in the day.