They Passed It!

The Senate passed the COVID relief bill. Though it doesn't include an increase in the minimum wage, it has many other good provisions. Obviously, the $1,400 direct payments and extension of unemployment insurance, but also support for small businesses, schools, public transit, and a lot more. Here are a couple of tweets that give some details.

For a working single mother of a 3-year-old who earns the minimum wage—just under $16,000 a year—the bill would provide up to $4,775 in direct benefits. For a family of four with one working parent and one who remains jobless due to child care constraints, benefits could total $12,460.
Steven Greenhouse @greenhousenyt

covid relief plan cuts child poverty in half, includes 1st amendment to the Affordable Care Act that limits healthcare costs to 8.5% of income and makes 150% poverty and below free [within ACA]
@RachelCoboltBlu

I’m happy that my bill with Senator Menendez to make any student loan forgiveness tax-free was included in the COVID relief bill. This clears the way for President Biden to Cancel Student Debt without burdening student borrowers with thousands of dollars in unexpected taxes.
Elizabeth Warren

And if $1.9 trillion seems like a lot of money (though it's just about the amount Republicans spent on tax cuts for wealthy Americans back during the Trump years), check this out:

Obviously $1.9 trillion is nothing to sneeze at. But I'll note the lifetime cost for the F-35 -- a plane that doesn't even fucking work -- is $1.7 trillion. And that has broad bipartisan support.
Jeet Heer

Thank you, Stacey Abrams and the New Georgia Project and everyone else who brought home those two Senate seats. Organizing is the answer, and keeping Republicans from suppressing the vote in the future.

(Oh, and also: very early in the morning after they had been in session all night, when some number of Republicans had left the chamber, Schumer got a cloture vote approved on Merrick Garland's nomination to be Attorney General, too. That means a final floor vote will be this week. (footage from CSPAN in this Twitter thread)