The U.S. Senate on Saturday passed President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package, and some Pennsylvania lawmakers are thanking their colleagues for voting to pass the bill.
The vote barely scraped by with 50-49 along party lines.
Democratic Governor Tom Wolf thanked the Senate for passing comprehensive aid for Americans that addresses ongoing challenges Pennsylvanians face due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This legislation will provide direct checks to American workers and families in need and ensure that programs including enhanced unemployment insurance and aid for hard-hit small businesses will continue. It also devotes new dollars to previously unaddressed needs, including a new direct grant program for independent restaurants and bars, assistance for state and local governments and expanded access to affordable child care.
Additional funding for vaccine distribution and COVID-19 testing will also be provided, helping give states the resources we need to scale up vaccine rollout, Wolf said in the statement.
“Thank you to our own Senator Bob Casey and to all of the federal lawmakers who advocated so strongly for this relief package. When the House passes this bill, it will provide desperately needed aid for families, businesses and communities in Pennsylvania,” Wolf said.
Casey, also a Democrat, released a statement, saying the “country is one step closer to putting the virus behind us.”
“When the House passes the American Rescue Plan and sends it to President Biden’s desk, we will put more money in the pockets of working families, help our children return to school safely and ensure everyone who wants to can be vaccinated.”
The Senate’s version of the package also included provisions authored by Casey: roughly $12.667 billion to expand Medicaid home and community-based services; $500 million for nursing home strike teams to manage COVID-19 outbreaks and another $200 million for technical assistance on infection control and vaccinations; more than $1.4 billion for vaccination outreach, education and transportation to appointments for seniors; legislation to expand and improve the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit; and expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit.
But not all state politicians are happy about the bill.
Republican Senator Pat Toomey, who voted against the the $1.9 trillion spending bill, also released a statement after the vote calling the package “wasteful.”
“Last year, Congress passed, with overwhelmingly bipartisan support, five bills that provided almost $4 trillion in response to COVID. This year, President Biden and congressional Democrats refused to work with Republicans and instead rammed through a wasteful $1.9 trillion bill on a strictly partisan vote.
“This bill is not about responding to COVID. It is about exploiting the final stretch of a public health crisis in order to enact a longstanding liberal wish-list for years into the future. Only a fraction of the funds in this bill can even be spent this year,” Toomey’s statement said.
Toomey cited several provisions in the bill, including making Obamacare subsidies available to people with six figure incomes; sending $350 billion to blue states and cities, despite their record high revenue collections in 2020 and $500 billion sent to them last year; sending payments to farmers and ranchers equal to 120 percent of their borrowings, irrespective of their earnings, wealth, or affects from COVID, and exclusively for ethnic minorities or immigrants; sending $1,400 stimulus checks to violent incarcerated criminals; paying federal employees to stay home for another 15 weeks, even after many of them have been working from home for the past year; and funneling hundreds of millions of dollars to the arts, humanities, and ‘environmental justice.’
“None of this is COVID-related, yet it is all in this spending monstrosity. At the same time, this bill fails to address the biggest problem facing Americans: fully reopening businesses and getting kids back to school as quickly as possible.”