The U.S. Senate’s $1.9 trillion federal Covid-19 relief package, being debated Friday, would provide $1.25 billion for Vermont’s state and local governments— about $400 million more than the plan that the House passed last week.
The House package originally included about $850 million for Vermont— $200 for state and local governments, and $655 million to help the state respond to the Covid-19 pandemic.
But U.S. Sen Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said he and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who chair the Senate appropriations and budget committees, respectively, moved to increase the state’s allocation.
“Bernie and I worked in the Senate; I know (Congressman Peter Welch) worked very hard in the House. We said before it came up we wanted to add more money, and we have done that,” Leahy said during Gov. Phil Scott’s press conference on Friday.
Leahy pushed to ensure that every state will receive at least $1.25 billion in the new relief package — the same amount Vermont got a year ago through the federal CARES Act.
The Senate bill would provide $200 million for Vermont’s local governments and more than $1 billion to the state government.
Sanders tried unsuccessfully Friday to put a $15-an-hour minimum wage back into the Covid-19 relief package. The wage hike was in the House bill, but was stripped out in the Senate when the chamber’s parliamentarian ruled last week that it couldn’t be included in the package.
Sanders, who criticized the parliamentarian’s ruling, proposed an amendment to put the $15 wage back into the bill, but the Senate voted 58-42 to reject the amendment. The federal minimum wage is currently $7.25 per hour and hasn’t been raised since 2007.
In arguing for his amendment, Sanders told senators Friday that during the pandemic 63% of American workers are living paycheck to paycheck and 23 million people “are unemployed, underemployed or have given up looking for work, while hunger in this country continues to soar.”
“In this moment of unprecedented crises, the Senate must respond through unprecedented action,” Sanders said.
All Republicans in the Senate voted against the amendment, joined by seven Democrats and independent Maine senator Angus King. The seven Democrats are Maggie Hassan and Jeanne Shaheen, both of New Hampshire; Chris Coons and Tom Carper, both of Delaware; Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona; Jon Tester of Montana; and Joe Manchin of West Virginia.
After the vote, Sanders said that, “if any senator believes this is the last time they will cast a vote on whether or not to give a raise to 32 million Americans, they are sorely mistaken. We’re going to keep bringing it up, and we’re going to get it done because it is what the American people demand and need.”
If the larger relief package passes, the Vermont state government would have wide latitude to spend the $1.25 billion to respond to the pandemic and its economic impacts. It would also direct money to Vermont’s education system, health care providers and other sectors.
An exact breakdown on what Vermont would receive wasn’t available Friday afternoon.
But Leahy said the package includes $27 million for the state’s vaccination efforts; $50 million for a homeowner assistance fund that will be used to help strained residents with mortgage payments and other housing expenses; and a minimum of $152 million in rental assistance.
The state money would include $100 million earmarked for “infrastructure like broadband.”
Leahy said he’s spoken with hundreds of families whose children struggle to attend school because of poor internet connection.
“They’re doing it virtually, but they don’t have adequate broadband to do it here in Vermont — they do in some parts of the state, but not in others,” he said.
The package also extends the length of federal unemployment benefits and would provide a $1,400 stimulus payment to most Americans.
The Senate debate continued Friday afternoon, and was likely to extend late into the evening.
“We will be voting until 1 or 2 o’clock, 3 o’clock tomorrow morning,” Leahy said. “But the path is very, very good.”
