Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said the chamber will remain in session until lawmakers pass a $1.9 trillion spending package.
Senate lawmakers will begin voting Friday afternoon on a barrage of GOP amendments to the legislation that could drag on for hours. Debate commenced at 9 a.m., following the nearly 11-hour reading of the 628-page measure. Republicans forced the Senate clerks to read the entire bill as part of a protest against the cost and scope of the bill, which they said is mostly wasteful and unrelated to the pandemic it aims to address.
Schumer, a New York Democrat, thanked the team of clerks. who read the bill beginning around 3 p.m. Thursday. They finished around 2 a.m.
Lawmakers will debate the measure for up to three hours Friday before commencing with a “vote-a-rama” on any amendment offered by a senator.
SENATE ADVANCES $1.9 TRILLION SPENDING BILL
Schumer said the Senate will not adjourn until the bill is passed.
“The Senate is going to take a lot of votes, but we are going to power through and finish this bill, however long it takes,” Schumer said.
Democrats plan to employ a budgetary tactic that will allow them to pass the measure with 51 votes instead of the usual 60. The move prevents the GOP from blocking the bill.
Sen. Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican, led the move to force the more than 10-hour bill reading. He said the measure is wasteful and should be whittled down to a fraction of the size and cost.
Republicans say they plan to offer amendments that highlight the wasteful spending in the bill.
Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, criticized the bill on the Senate floor Friday morning, arguing it does not ensure children return to classrooms and only devotes 9% of spending to the virus and just 1% to critical vaccines.
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“This isn’t a pandemic rescue package. It’s a parade of left-wing pet projects that they are ramming through during the pandemic,” McConnell said.
