House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at the Capitol on Friday: ‘The plan that we are voting on today will make a tremendous difference.’
Photo: olivier douliery/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesWASHINGTON--The House narrowly passed a sprawling, $3 trillion coronavirus-relief package Friday night, capping a weeklong effort by Democratic leaders to quash rebellions from various wings of their party.
The proposal, which passed 208 to 199, marks the Democrats’ starting point for talks with Republicans and the White House on the next round of stimulus, and sets the stage for dueling political messages in an election year.
The House bill includes about $1 trillion in direct aid to states and localities, including grants and education assistance, to deal with the effects of the pandemic. It would put a new round of one-time cash payments into Americans’ bank accounts, extend the duration of enhanced jobless benefits, help cover some rents and mortgages, forgive some student-loan debt and send premium pay to essential workers in fields such as health care.
“The plan that we are voting on today will make a tremendous difference not only in the budgets in the states, but in the lives of the American people,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) said on the House floor Friday. “We think this is a major investment in the lives of the American people and in the budgets of our states and localities.”
The bill overcame a key hurdle Friday night when Democratic leaders were able to beat back a Republican effort to strip out a contentious provision enabling undocumented immigrants who have tax identification numbers to receive direct stimulus payments. Key blocs of liberal and Hispanic lawmakers had threatened to oppose the overall bill if that measure were removed, but voting to preserve it was a political challenge for more centrist Democrats, particularly those in districts won by President Trump.
Republicans made clear that the bill has no prospect of advancing in the GOP-led Senate. “It’s a parade of absurdities that can hardly be taken seriously,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) said Thursday on Fox News. Mr. McConnell said that he had spoken recently with President Trump and cabinet officials and that they agree another bill is probably necessary but that “it’s not going to be a $3 trillion left-wing wish list like the speaker is apparently going to try to jam down the throats of her majority.”
Mr. McConnell has said the next bill must include measures to shield companies from liability during the pandemic.
White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett said in an interview Friday with The Wall Street Journal that Mr. Trump is open to more funding for state and local governments, as long as the money isn’t used to “bail out states that haven’t necessarily had their act together.” Congressional Republicans have said they don’t want to allow states to use the federal funds to support pension programs.
House Democratic leaders had tangled with some members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus who had hoped to include a measure from Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D., Wash.) that would provide grants to employers to cover paychecks of up to $100,000 a year per worker—a broader approach to encourage employee retention than what is contained in the bill.
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Democratic leaders also opted to subsidize Cobra health-insurance payments for laid-off workers instead of providing government-sponsored health care, angering some progressives. Cobra is a program that allows former employees to pay for continued coverage under the employer’s plan.
Liberal lawmakers, as well as the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, balked Friday, threatening to vote against the bill if centrists voted with Republicans on a procedural motion to remove the direct payments for undocumented immigrants with taxpayer identification numbers. The House Democratic bill would allow them to receive direct payments of $1,200 per family member and up to $6,000 per household, just as U.S. citizens and legal workers would receive.
Ultimately, the GOP procedural motion was blocked, with Republican votes and the 13 defecting Democrats falling short of passing it.
Meanwhile, more-centrist Democrats had concerns about the bill’s cost.
In an unusual show of discord earlier in the day, 14 Democrats voted against a standard procedural measure setting up consideration of the bill. Lawmakers typically vote along party lines on such measures.
Rep. Abigail Spanberger, a Virginia Democrat who unseated a GOP incumbent in 2018, said Friday morning she would oppose the bill, saying it went beyond pandemic relief and had no chance of becoming law.
“Unfortunately, many members of Congress—including some in my own party—have decided to use this package as an opportunity to make political statements,” Ms. Spanberger said.
Democratic aides said they expected some of the liberal lawmakers who voted no on the procedural measure to support the bill’s final passage. And at least one Republican, Rep. Peter King of New York, said he planned to support the relief package.
“I don’t like voting for it but to me it’s life or death,” Mr. King told reporters Friday, saying the urgency of providing more aid to state and local governments pushed him to support the bill.
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House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.) criticized Democrats for holding a vote on a $3 trillion bill “that will go nowhere.”
Democrats said the legislation would put pressure on Senate Republicans to act on additional pandemic legislation.
“We’re essentially putting the ball back in McConnell’s court, and he can’t take the position that he has no obligation to present or produce something,” said Rep. Dan Kildee (D., Mich.), a member of Mrs. Pelosi’s whip team. “ If he has different ideas about what we ought to do, he’s gotta articulate it at this point in time.”
Lawmakers also approved a historic proposal to allow the House speaker to initiate remote operations for 45 days if nonpartisan officials have declared a public-health emergency. Once initiated, lawmakers would be able to hold committee meetings remotely and vote through a House member acting as a proxy on the House floor to vote for up to 10 other lawmakers.
People waiting in line for help with unemployment benefits in Las Vegas in March.
Photo: John Locher/Associated PressUnderstanding the Coronavirus
Under the resolution, one lawmaker could serve as a proxy for no more than 10 other lawmakers. The proposal also directs the chair of the House Administration Committee to study the feasibility of secure technology that could enable remote voting.
—Siobhan Hughes contributed to this article.
Write to Kristina Peterson at kristina.peterson@wsj.com and Andrew Duehren at andrew.duehren@wsj.com
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