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Democrats have an ace up their sleeve to advance the third stimulus check of $ 1, 400 dollars.
According to Senator Bernie Sanders (Vermont) they would not have to convince Republicans in the Senate to endorse the legislation, as it could be passed with a simple majority; that is 50 plus one. The extra vote would be that of Vice President Kamala Harris .
The strategy is called Budget Reconciliation whose application he explained in Sanders on CNN.
“We are going to use reconciliation, that is, 50 votes in the Senate plus the vice president, to pass legislation that working families desperately need in this country right now, ”he said.
The House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi (California), promote the approval of a first project the following week proposed by President Joe Biden, which includes the $ 1, 400 dollars per person.
Upon reaching the Senate, the bill would have no problem, since one of the rules in Congress is that the budget cannot stagnate due to stubbornness or the so-called “filibuster.”
“Instead of needing 60 votes, a reconciliation bill only needs a simple majority in the Senate,” explains the House Budget Committee. “That bill has a special status in the Senate… Since the budget cannot be obstructed, it only needs a simple majority to pass.”
Sanders has criticized this process, applied by Republicans in 2017, but said that in that year they used it “to grant tax breaks to billionaires.”
“Yes , I criticized them for that. And if they want to criticize me for helping feed the hungry children or the elderly in this country who are isolated and alone and do not have enough food, they can criticize me ”, Sanders said.
