Murkowski joins all GOP senators voting against Biden COVID-19 bill

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) on Saturday voted against President Biden’s $1.9 trillion pandemic relief package, preventing Democrats from claiming any patina of bipartisanship on a popular package that most Republicans attacked as a waste of money.

Murkowski, who put forward an amendment to the bill that was ultimately adopted, was seen as a potential swing vote for Democrats. However, in the end, not a single Republican in either chamber supported the legislation, which Biden made his first major priority in office.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) slammed the relief bill for breaking the streak of five COVID-19 packages Congress passed in the past year that have garnered bipartisan support.

“The voters picked a president who promised bipartisanship. The Democrats’ response is to ram through what they call, quote, the most progressive domestic legislation in a generation on a razor-thin majority in both chambers,” he said on the floor.

The party-line Senate vote Saturday came after no Republican voted for the $1.9 trillion package in the House, where two Democrats, Reps. Kurt Schrader (Ore.) and Jared Golden (Maine), also voted no.

Republicans argued that Biden broke his promise to try to bring Republicans and Democrats together in Washington.

“They have been able to take the power they obtained” in the 2020 election “and they’re not using it consistent with the rhetoric of President Biden,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.).

Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.) said Murkowski’s "no" vote bolsters the GOP message that Democrats have ignored Biden’s promise to bring more bipartisanship to Washington.

“We don’t pressure people, but I’m glad she found her way to be with the team because I think it’s a very strong message that this was — as we suggested all along — a very partisan process and a product that reflects a rushed, hurried attempt to get $2 trillion out the door,” he said.

“She was having discussions with [Democrats] on some things that are important to her state, but I kind of always believed in the end that she would end up where she did,” he said.

Thune said Murkowski alerted Republican leaders ahead of time about how she would vote.

Republicans were angered Friday after Biden intervened to ask centrist Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) not to support a Republican amendment that would have ended weekly $300 federal unemployment payments on July 18 and would not have provided tax forgiveness for benefits collected last year.

Murkowski voted against the legislation moments after the Senate adopted by voice vote an amendment she sponsored with Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) to provide $800 million to provide places to sleep and “wrap-around services” for homeless children.

The adoption of that amendment raised some hopes that Murkows... (Read more)

Latest News