Nevadans in majority as Senate OKs COVID-19 relief bill
Sens. Jacky Rosen and Catherine Cortez Masto backed the $1.9 trillion package, which the Senate passed 50-49 and which directs more than $4 billion toward Nevada.
Nevada Democratic Sens. Jacky Rosen and Catherine Cortez Masto were both in the razor-thin majority Saturday, March 6, 2021, as the U.S. Senate approved a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill on a 50-49 vote, according to the Washington Times and KOLO-TV.
The bill delivers a victory that President Joe Biden and Democratic allies described as crucial for lifting the country out of the pandemic and its economic effects, per the Washington Times' reporting. The package includes $350 billion for states and cities, with more than $4 billion directed to Nevada to help with budget shortfalls and recovery, according to the same report.
What Nevada's senators said
Cortez Masto said she was a leader in negotiations shaping the bill, which she said would "provide Nevadans with vital coronavirus relief," according to the Washington Times. Rosen said the legislation "contains numerous provisions that will help to see the Silver State through this challenging time," per the same reporting.
The narrow math behind the vote
The 50-49 tally reflects the Senate's even partisan split at the time, with Democrats holding the chamber only through the vice president's tie-breaking authority in other votes; this particular measure passed without needing that tie-break, per the reported margin. The bill still needed to be reconciled with the House-passed version before reaching the president's desk, a step not detailed further in the retrieved coverage.
What was in the broader package
Beyond the state and local funding Nevada's senators highlighted, the Senate-passed package included $1,400 stimulus checks for eligible individuals, an extension of $300-per-week federal jobless benefits through the summer, an expanded child tax credit of up to $3,600 per child for one year, $34 billion to expand Affordable Care Act subsidies, and $14 billion for vaccine distribution, according to NBC News and CBS News' reporting on the bill's contents. The vote followed what CBS News described as a marathon, roughly 24-hour Senate session of amendment votes -- known as a "vote-a-rama" -- that ran through the night before the final 50-49 tally.
The vote's partisan lines and what came next
No Republican senator voted for the bill, according to NBC News and Rolling Stone's reporting on the vote, with all Democrats -- including Rosen and Cortez Masto -- voting in favor and all Republicans opposed. Because the Senate had amended the House's original version during the vote-a-rama, the legislation had to go back to the House for a final vote before it could reach President Biden's desk, according to CNBC's reporting; House Democrats were expected to hold that final approval vote within days of the Senate's passage.
The overnight amendment session itself drew separate coverage: Roll Call's reporting on the vote-a-rama described senators voting through the night on a long series of amendments -- most from Republicans seeking to reshape or shrink the package -- before the bill passed largely along the lines Democrats had drafted it. That process meant the version Rosen and Cortez Masto ultimately voted for on Saturday differed only marginally from what had passed the House weeks earlier, despite the extended floor fight over amendments in between.
US In News compiled this archived account from contemporaneous coverage by the Washington Times and KOLO-TV. It restores a story originally published on this site in March 2021; figures are as reported at the time.