“We cannot underscore enough how much help America needs during this awful crisis and we cannot miss the point that we still have a long way to go. This was a giant first step … to bring America back, to overcome this horrible crisis and then move America forward,” he said.
Democrats had flexed their muscle by offering an amendment reversing some earlier votes about the future of the Keystone XL pipeline and coronavirus aid to immigrants living illegally in the US.
Senate Minority Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) indicated earlier that Republicans would try to extract concessions from Democrats in uncomfortable votes.
“We’re going to put senators on the record,” the Kentucky senator said. “Expect votes to stop Washington from actively killing jobs during a recovery — like terminating the Keystone pipeline; that job-killing, one-size-fits-all minimum wage hike; and whether to bar tax hikes on small businesses for the duration of this emergency.”
In a tweet after the vote Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders celebrated the victory.
