The measure clears the way for Democrats to pass Biden’s $1.9 trillion relief package without the threat of a GOP filibuster

On one closely watched issue, Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa offered an amendment to prevent a hike in the minimum wage to $15 an hour during a pandemic. Democrats want to include a $15 minimum wage in the Covid relief bill, but her measure could have been complicated for centrist members — like Manchin, who has a different position than most of his caucus and supports a more modest increase in the minimum wage.

But before a roll call vote was called, Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont Independent who is the chair of the Budget Committee and a champion of the $15 minimum wage, intervened and said his proposal would actually make the jump to $15 over five years, not right away as Ernst had formulated in her amendment. With that, her amendment was quickly adopted by unanimous consent.

An amendment by Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas in opposition to expanding the Supreme Court, the so-called practice of court packing that is advocated by some progressives to offset the conservative majority of the court, was defeated on a 50-50 vote.

What happens now?

The budget resolution that passed is not the Covid relief bill. It simply sets the stage for Democrats to be able to use a process known as “budget reconciliation” to pass the relief bill on a party-line vote, possibly in late February or March, after the impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump is complete in the Senate.

The House already passed the budget measure earlier in the week. But because it was amended in the Senate, the House had to revote on it Friday.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Friday that next week, they will begin working on the specifics of the bill, and predicted that the House will send a bill to the Senate “hopefully in a two week period of time,” so that “this will be done long before the due date” of the expiration of unemployment insurance in March.

A Biden aide told CNN Friday the Senate’s passage of the resolution is a “positive step forward” and that the White House is “looking forward to continued progress to getting assistance to the American people.”

White House press secretary Jen Psaki reiterated during a briefing this week there are certain “bottom lines” that Biden wants to be in the next round of Covid-19 relief, including direct payments reaching more Americans than what the Republican proposal would include.

“His view is that at this point in our country, when 1-in-7 American families don’t have enough food to eat, we need to make sure people get the relief they need and are not left behind,” Psaki said, adding that the administration views the risk “is not going too big, it is going too small.”

Reconciliation has been used many times by both parties to pass controversial legislation over the objections of the minority party, including then-President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act in 2010 and Trump’s sweeping tax cuts in 2017.

Republicans are unhappy Democrats are resorting to the aggressive tactic, though, arguing it will set a partisan tone for the rest of Biden’s presidency and that he’s not operating as the political unifier he pledged to be.

“We remain committed to working in a bipartisan fashion and hope that you will take into account our views as the legislative process moves forward,” the group, led by Maine Sen. Susan Collins, said.

This story and headline have been updated with additional developments Friday.