Senate passes House’s coronavirus response bill, sends to Trump

On Wednesday, the Senate passed the House’s coronavirus legislation to provide sick leave, unemployment help, and free testing to Americans, sending the second COVID-19 relief bill to President Trump.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, has criticized the legislation negotiated by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California, and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin as having ‘real shortcomings.’ He urged his members to “gag and vote for it anyway’ to should bipartisan cooperation during the global pandemic.

 

“This is a time for urgent bipartisan action, and in this case, I do not believe we should let perfection be the enemy of something that will help even a subset of workers,” McConnell said Wednesday morning in announcing he’d vote for the House legislation.

 

The Senate passed the legislation in a 90-8 vote.

Two senators were not present, Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colorado, and Sen. Rick Scott, R-Florida, due to self-quarantine after exposure to people who tested positive for coronavirus.

The eight senators voting no were all Republicans: Sens. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, James Inhofe of Oklahoma, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, James Lankford of Oklahoma, Mike Lee of Utah, Rand Paul of Kentucky, Ben Sasse of Nebraska and Tim Scott of South Carolina.

Critics mentioned the mandate on small businesses to provide paid sick leave to workers was too much of a hardship because when companies are short on cash and can’t wait for a federal tax credit reimbursement.

“Small businesses in my state are closed,” Lankford said after the vote. “…Many small businesses are really struggling with how they’re going to pay for this when they have no income coming in right now. They are hearing the promise of a federal reimbursement coming to them, but they don’t know when that’s coming and they’re literally teetering on the edge right now. And they’re [saying]: ‘Please don’t do something that pushes us over the edge.’”

If President Trump signs the legislation, this would provide 14 days of paid sick days to workers affected by the coronavirus, ensure free testing to everyone, including the uninsured, and expand food aid and unemployment dollars to states.

The Senate and White House have been racing to draft the third round of stimulus legislation. The stimulus legislation can invest about $1 Trillion into the U.S. Economy that has been affected by school shutdowns, business closures, and steep declines in the travel and tourism industry as many Americans are stuck home.

McConnell mentioned that the Senate Republications were close to an agreement on the next round of legislation that would help businesses, American workers, health-care professionals, and others affected by the public health emergency.

 

“Yeah, we’re working along and hoping to be together shortly,” McConnell told reporters when asked whether Republicans were close on legislation.

 

The House and Senate have already passed a bipartisan $8.3 billion package to build up the health-care systems to prepare for the influx of sick Americans. The second response bill aims to bring relief to workers who lost their jobs and families at home for illnesses, quarantines, or caring for kids who have close.

Trump has backed the plan with broad bipartisan support in a 363-40 vote. The legislation moved quickly, bypassing the normal review processes, that the House had to make corrections to the bill language.

I fully support H.R. 6201: Families First CoronaVirus Response Act, which will be voted on in the House this evening. This Bill will follow my direction for free CoronaVirus tests, and paid sick leave for our impacted American workers. I have directed….

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 14, 2020