Chad Pergram
@ChadPergram1) The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the COVID bill in the Senate
We really don’t know what the lay of the land is in the Senate right now on the coronavirus bill. The Senate meets at noon et and could hold a vote on proceeding to the bill. That entails 20 hours of debate.
2) But we were still waiting on a score from the Joint Committee on Taxation and the Congressional Budget Office last night.
3) Also, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) is threatening to require every amendment to the bill read out loud on the floor by the clerk, including what’s called the “substitute†amendment. There are garden variety amendments of just a few sentences or pages. And then there is a substitute
4) That generally swaps out all bill text in exchange for brand new text. It’s essentially a new bill. So requiring the verbal reading of that would consume hours and hours. Reading of amendments does not count against debate time - unless there is an agreement to do so.
5) Only after the Senate either burns through the 20 hours of debate does the “vote-a-rama†begin. That’s where the Senate takes vote after vote after vote, often around the clock for hours, on various anendments or efforts to change the bill.
6) The final vote is final passage of the measure. In short, without an agreement, this process could chew up DAYS in the Senate, potentially consuming all weekend. Then, the altered bill goes to the House.
7) Whatever the Senate approves will be different from what the House ok’d last week. The House may have to wrestle with those changes to get the votes to align with the Senate and send the bill to Biden by mid-month. That’s when many additional unemployment benefits expire
8:19 AM · Mar 4, 2021·Twitter for iPhone
https://twitter.com/ChadPergram/status/1367464810074537985
