Sen. Ted Cruz plans to propose an amendment to President Biden’s $1.9 trillion spending bill that would provide federal scholarship grants to children whose public school is shuttered because of the pandemic.
The Texas Republican wants to make the grants available to children who live in school districts without available in-person instruction. The scholarships would be geared toward children whose parents who cannot afford the high cost of private tutors or private school tuition. In many communities throughout the country where public schools are closed because of the coronavirus, private school classrooms have been open since the start of the fall term.
“It is a national scandal and an outrage that millions of kids are still not in school,” Cruz told the Washington Examiner Thursday in an interview. “If you’re a single mom struggling to hold down a couple of jobs, the options you have for your kids if school is still closed are extremely limited.”
Biden’s American Recovery Plan polls well with voters across the political spectrum. But Republicans on Capitol Hill appear unanimously opposed, calling the legislation a liberal wish list of spending items that have nothing to do with addressing the health and economic impacts of the coronavirus. The package passed the House on a party-line vote with all Republicans in opposition, and the same is expected to happen in the Senate.
In the Senate, the bill is being considered under an arcane rule known as “reconciliation.” That allows Democrats to circumvent the filibuster and pass the legislation with just 51 votes, rather than the 60 normally needed to overcome a filibuster. But it also creates a lengthy process for considering potentially hundreds of amendments to the package, such as the one Cruz is proposing. Senate Republicans are hoping to use this “vote-a-rama” to slow down passage of the bill and foment voter opposition.
“Nobody knows what’s in it,” Cruz said. “If you ask people: ‘Should the government send you a check?’ Most people say ‘yes.’ That polls well. But that’s actually a very small portion of what this bill is.”
Cruz is proposing a second amendment to the $1.9 trillion package.
The bill would distribute $1,400 stimulus checks to people who are hurting financially because of the pandemic. Although Democrats argue otherwise, congressional Republicans claim illegal immigrants are eligible for those payments under the current language of the bill. Cruz is proposing to bar illegal immigrants from receiving stimulus checks and redirect that money instead to children who are citizens or legal residents of the United States.
“In the realm of common sense, that should be a very easy amendment, that should pass 100-0,” Cruz said. “The Senate is not the realm of common sense, and so, I expect most, if not all, Democrats to vote against it.”
Democrats say flatly that no illegal immigrant would receive a stimulus check, pointing out that in the case of a married couple in which one spouse is in the country illegally, only the U.S. citizen or legal resident would receive a payment. The details of Cruz’s two amendments were still being finalized Thursday afternoon.
