After barrage of amendments, Senate could send budget to the House soon
Senate lawmakers could soon wrap up debate on a $3.5 trillion budget resolution and send it to the House, where it will face renewed scrutiny and possible changes from liberal lawmakers who form the party's base.
The Senate began voting on a barrage of amendments to the bill Tuesday afternoon, soon after approving a $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure measure that had been negotiated for weeks.
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While 19 Republicans joined Democrats to pass the infrastructure measure, no GOP lawmaker backed advancing the budget framework, which would raise taxes on corporations and the wealthy to pay for universal preschool, free community college, expanded Medicare benefits, and would provide a pathway to citizenship for millions of illegal immigrant farm workers.
The resolution’s passage allows Democrats to take up accompanying spending legislation later and pass it with only a simple majority, which means they can avert a Republican filibuster.
Republicans, with no power to stop the $3.5 trillion measure, offered a barrage of nonbinding amendments to serve as politically difficult votes for Democrats, including a provision to reject the Green New Deal and another to spare family farms and small businesses from tax increases.
“Every single senator will be going on record over and over and over,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican. “Senate Republicans will be bringing forward common-sense amendments that represent what Americans actually want and need.”
Republicans also forced Democrats to vote on an amendment to maintain the state and local tax cap that hits blue-state, wealthy homeowners the hardest. A provision to repeal it is included in the $3.5 trillion budget blueprint, and Republicans argued it would result in tax cuts for the wealthy.
Democrats blocked it, arguing they would make the wealthy pay more through other proposed tax hikes.
While Democrats can garner the support to pass the resolution in the Senate, it must also win approval from the House, in which liberal lawmakers have already complained it should include additional policy provisions and spend more money on social welfare programs and climate change initiatives.
House Democrats are also unhappy with the Senate infrastructure package, with leading liberals calling it too narrow and lacking key policy provisions to end fossil fuel use.
The House recessed for the summer and will return in mid-September.
It will be up to Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, to get nearly every Democrat's support for both the infrastructure and social spending package to avoid having the Senate reconsider the two measures.
House Democrats can spare only three votes in their party due to a slim majority over the GOP.
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Pelosi, in a statement, signaled her endorsement of the $3.5 trillion framework, calling the measure “a transformative budget resolution that will achieve the vision of President Biden and Congressional Democrats to Build Back Better, by expanding opportunity, prosperity and justice For The People.”
In a press conference Tuesday, Biden praised both the measures and signaled confidence they would become law.
“I think the House will eventually put the two bills on my desk,” Biden said.
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Tags: News, Congress, Deficit, Budget, Nancy Pelosi
Original Author: Susan Ferrechio
Original Location: After barrage of amendments, Senate could send budget to the House soon
