The vote will take place Friday, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer tweeted Tuesday.
The House will vote on Friday on @POTUS’ #AmericanRescuePlan to end this pandemic and deliver urgently needed relief to America’s families and small businesses. The American people strongly support this bill, and we are moving swiftly to see it enacted into law. Steny (Wear a Mask) Hoyer (@LeaderHoyer) February 24, 2021
The House Budget Committee vote Monday was 19 to 16, with one Democrat, Rep. Lloyd Doggett of Texas, joining Republicans in voting against the relief package. However, Doggett s spokesman said in a statement the vote against the package was an accident and that Doggett supports the COVID-19 relief legislation.
Some representatives on the House Appropriations Committee are planning to bring back earmarks to Congress, allowing legislators to designate certain spending back to their districts for specific projects.
Despite the exploitation of earmarking in the past, such as “the bridge to nowhere,” that led to their ban in previous congressional terms, Democrats are moving forward with a plan to reimplement the strategy with new restrictions. According to Democratic House Appropriations Committee Chair Rosa DeLauro, each representative will be allowed 10 earmark requests. For those requests to be written into legislation, members will have to prove that the projects they have in mind have community support and are in no way tied to a personal “financial interest” of the member. Finally, the members’ total earmarks may not exceed 1 percent of all discretionary spending.
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As Democrats press ahead with plans to pass a $1.9 trillion Covid relief package by a process that would bypass the need for Republican support, more than 150 CEOs of large American companies are urging bipartisan backing for the plan.
The latest: House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) announced Tuesday night that Democrats plan to pass their relief bill through the lower chamber on Friday. “The American people strongly support this bill, and we are moving swiftly to see it enacted into law,” he said on Twitter. On the Senate side, lawmakers are awaiting a ruling from the parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, as to whether an increase in the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour can be included in the package under rules governing the special budget reconciliation process being used. A ruling is reportedly expected as early as Wednesday evening.