For the first time as vice president, Kamala Harris cast a tie-breaking vote in a deadlocked Senate early Friday morning to pass a key budget bill and open the door for Democrats to pass a massive coronavirus relief package.
Democrats needed to sweep the two Georgia Senate races to create a 50/50 Senate, so that Vice President Harris could break the ties as Senate president.
“On this vote, the yeas are 50, the nays are 50,” Vice President Harris said. “The Senate being equally divided, the vice president votes in the affirmative and the concurrent resolution as amended is adopted.”
The 51-50 vote paves the way for Democrats to pass a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill with a simple majority.
California’s new U.S. Senator, Alex Padilla, told KCBS Radio why that’s so critical.
“People are dying,” he said. “Small business owners are struggling to keep their doors open, and so, I certainly feel the sense of urgency.”
Now comes the crafting of that package.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi still hopes for bipartisan consensus, but knows she’ll get what she wants whether Republicans come along or not.
After meeting with President Joe Biden, who said the package will include relief checks of $1,400 per person, Pelosi and fellow Democrats were downright giddy when asked how different it was working with him instead of Donald Trump.
