Despite a few hitches and glitches, the House has finally passed the $1.9 trillion Covid relief bill, a short while ago. It was passed along party lines with a 220-211 vote.
On Wednesday morning, Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene filed a “motion to adjourn” saying that her colleagues need additional time to discuss the bill.
The staunch QAnon supporter and conspiracy theory advocate took to one of her favorite social media platforms to post about her step to stop the vote on the bill. She called it a “massive woke progressive Democrat wish list.”
In the House the rep. officially tried to file her motion hoping to adjourn the vote and asked the Speaker to do so. However, within hours of her putting the appeal in motion, 40 members of her own party, the GOP voted against the adjournment motion.
The vote on the motion caused some delay as the House was set to vote on the $1.9 trillion Covid bill that is one of President Biden’s most important ones as it has monetary to increase vaccinations, to send stimulus checks to eligible Americans, to extend unemployment benefits and to provide funds for local and state institutions to restart the faltering economy.
As the bill has passed today, the president will sign it to make it a law and stimulus checks will be disbursed by the end of the week. It will also extend the unemployment benefits which were to lapse soon.
Many changes were made in the original bill as moderates including one Democrat senator, Joe Manchin, held back the bill until changes were made and benefits were trimmed.
On Saturday, the Senate had passed the bill along partisan lines with a 50-49 vote. The absence of a GOP senator due to a family emergency made it a 50-49 instead of a 50-50 vote.
One of the biggest disappointments for many Democrats and independent Rep. Bernie Sanders was the dropping of the House-approved federal minimum wage increase up to $15 an hour by 2025. Rep. Pramila Jayapal, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus with almost 100 members was extremely disappointed though she called the bill “incredibly bold.”
Many other Democrats including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi lauded the bill while Republicans said that the country would pay the price for the extra spending.
