The US Senate will start its debate "this week" on President Joe Biden's massive economic stimulus plan, Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Monday.

The House of Representatives, also under Democratic control, on Saturday approved the $1.9 trillion package designed to jumpstart the US economy after the implosion caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, and which included a hike in the federal minimum wage.

The version of the bill the Senate will debate will not include the latter section on increasing minimum wage due to congressional rules governing the budgetary process.

Despite disappointment from many in his party, the president called on Congress to quickly adopt the rest of the package.

"We have no time to waste. If we act now, decisively, quickly and boldly, we can finally get ahead of this virus," Biden said Saturday.

"The Senate will take up the American Rescue Plan this week," Schumer said Monday. "I expect a hearty debate and some late nights but the American people sent us here with a job to do."

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, seen on February 25, 2021, says he expects "a hearty debate and some late nights" over the bill
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, seen on February 25, 2021, says he expects "a hearty debate and some late nights" over the bill AFP / JIM WATSON

After an hours-long debate, the lower chamber adopted the bill early Saturday by 219 votes, all Democratic, against 212, which included two Democrats, with the Republicans denouncing it as too costly and not specifically targeted enough.

"About two o'clock on Saturday morning, House Democrats rammed through the bonanza of partisan spending they're calling a pandemic rescue package. Only Democrats voted for it. Both Republicans and Democrats voted against it," said Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader.

Democrats have a very narrow majority in the upper house: there are 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans but in the event of a tie Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris casts a deciding vote.

Even though progressives in the Democratic Party mourned the removal of the minimum wage hike from the bill, the procedural move could ultimately facilitate the passage of the stimulus package, as at least two centrist Democrats in the Senate were against it.

Given the Republicans' wholesale opposition, their defection risked scuttling the entire plan.

After the Senate vote, the bill will have to go back to the House for a final vote. Democrats want to adopt the text before March 14, when payments of extended unemployment benefits from a previous aid plan expire.

Coronavirus