The party-line vote was a stunning setback after three days of fast-paced negotiations between senators and administration officials to reach a bipartisan compromise on legislation that is expected to be the largest economic stimulus package in American history — now expected to cost $1.8 trillion or more. In a 47-to-47 vote, the Senate fell short of the 60 votes that would have been needed to advance the measure, even as talks continued behind the scenes between Democrats and the White House to salvage a compromise.
The failure to move forward shook financial markets and threatened an ambitious timeline set by the Trump administration and leading Republicans to move the rescue package through the Senate on Monday and enact it within days.
In voting to block action, Democrats risked a political backlash if they are seen as obstructing progress on a measure that is widely regarded as crucial to aid desperate Americans and buttress a flagging economy.
“This is irresponsible and unwise,” said Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine. “They are playing with fire.”
The move enraged Republicans, whose numbers were dwindling after Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, announced on Sunday that he had contracted the coronavirus and prompted two senators to self-isolate and miss the vote that evening. The maneuver by Democrats, they argued, contravened days of bipartisan negotiations that continued in private and jeopardized faith that Congress was capable of mustering a legislative salve for a shuddering economy.
The mood in the Capitol was grim as the vote unfolded, in an eerie echo of the spectacle in 2008 when the House initially defeated a $700 billion Wall Street bailout that aimed to stabilize the financial system amid a global meltdown, sending the Dow Jones industrials plunging. Sunday evening’s vote was a procedural one, but it shook markets all the same. Dow futures fell 5 percent, inciting a “limit down,” meaning they could not fall any further.
Senators and aides said they still hoped to reach a compromise on the legislation, with Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the minority leader, declaring after the vote that “we’re closer than we’ve been at any time over the past 48 hours to an agreement.”
Reference: New York Times
