Sen. Angus King voted with Democrats on Tuesday to begin a process to pass a sweeping $1.9 trillion pandemic relief proposal along party lines. The vote potentially allows Democrats to steer around the demands of a bloc of Republicans led by Sen. Susan Collins who have argued for far less relief.
The Senate voted 50-49 along party lines in favor of the resolution, which paves the way for President Joe Biden’s coronavirus relief proposal to be passed through a Senate process known as budget reconciliation.
King’s vote comes after Maine groups expressed concern about the Maine independent senator being part of a group of Republicans and conservative Democrats who had a call with the Biden administration on Jan. 24 to negotiate down relief.
Democrats, with whom King is aligned, now have 50 votes in the 100-seat upper chamber, and Vice President Kamala Harris holds the tie-breaking vote in her capacity as Senate president. The Senate filibuster effectively requires a 60-vote supermajority for the passage of most legislation, but reconciliation provides a process to pass bills that meet certain budgetary qualifications with simple majority support.
The resolution directs House and Senate committees to begin the reconciliation process on several of the key provisions in Biden’s plan, including a $15 minimum wage and eliminating sub-minimum tipped wages, $1,400 direct payments, a $400 per week enhancement to unemployment benefits, $350 billion for state and local governments, $170 billion to reopen schools, $120 billion for a child tax credit, $40 billion for childcare, $35 billion for rent assistance, as well as more money for vaccines, testing and public health programs.
The vote came after a group of 10 Senate Republicans led by Collins (the number of Republicans needed to break a filibuster) met with Biden at the White House on Monday to discuss a $600 billion offer — less than a third of the president’s proposal.
The Republicans’ offer included $1,000 direct payments narrowed to far fewer people, no money for state and local governments, no money for a child tax credit, and no money for rent assistance.
Biden has suggested that he supports using budget reconciliation if Republicans refuse to offer bipartisan support for pandemic relief. This has been a welcome sign to progressive lawmakers like Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) and Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) who have urged Democrats to not negotiate down relief to appease Republicans or blocs of centrist senators.
King said he is still seeking bipartisan compromise for relief but said he voted for the reconciliation authorization to speed the process.
“I have long advocated for a bipartisan solution, and continue to support good faith discussions with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to build a package that can both garner bipartisan support and meet the urgency of the moment,” King told Beacon in a statement on Wednesday.
“But as these negotiations continue and with time of the essence, I feel it’s important to prepare for all outcomes, including the possibility that there are not 10 Republican votes for legislation that sufficiently addresses the needs of the American people,” he said. “The vote we took [Tuesday] does not preclude a bipartisan solution; if anything, I am hopeful that it could speed up negotiations and expedite an agreement.”
Economic experts and Maine-based labor groups were critical of comments made by King during the Jan. 24 virtual meeting with the Biden administration, which included Republicans Collins and Sen. Mitt Romney as well as Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin.
“This isn’t Monopoly money,” King said at the time. “Every dollar that we’re talking about here is being borrowed from our grandchildren.”
No "reconciliation" for @RepGolden on #coronavirus aid passage: “Biden won the presidency; I won my reelection. That being said…the House Democratic majority got more narrow, not larger. They barely won the Senate; it’s a 50-50 split. This is not a mandate for one-party rule.” pic.twitter.com/48OxH0H86p
— Phil Hirschkorn (@PHirschkorn) February 1, 2021
In the House, Maine’s Second District Rep. Jared Golden, a Democrat, has advocated against using reconciliation to pass relief along party lines, which he described as “one-party rule,” according to media reports.
“Biden won the presidency; I won my reelection. That being said … the House Democratic majority got more narrow, not larger. They barely won the Senate; it’s a 50-50 split,” Golden said. “This is not a mandate for one-party rule.”
Golden is a member of the “Problem Solvers Caucus” in the House, a bloc of centrist Democrat and Republican members, sponsored by No Labels — an organization that has courted funding from far-right donors including David Koch, PayPal founder Peter Thiel and billionaire hedge-fund manager Paul Singer.
White House Chief of Staff Ronald Klein countered arguments that Democrats need Republican support for pandemic relief, citing a new Yahoo News/YouGov poll showing more than two-thirds of Americans support Biden’s relief proposal.
“This IS a bipartisan agenda,” Klein tweeted.
Photo from Sen. Angus King’s social media.
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