The next phase of the legislative process will be to fill in the budget framework with details, a process that takes place in the Senate Budget Committee.
The chairman of this committee is Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who proposed his own $6 trillion budget resolution plan earlier this summer.
But Sanders’ $6 trillion plan was far too costly for centrist Democrats to support, and the current $3.5 trillion bill represents an effort to bridge these internal divisions.
The budget resolution also contains a key provision that Sanders has long championed but which was not included in Biden’s original American Families Plan: full Medicare coverage for vision, dental and hearing care.
“This is, in our view, a pivotal moment in American history,” Sanders told reporters Tuesday.
If ultimately signed into law, the bill would mark the biggest expansion of the social safety net in decades, along with an unprecedented effort to curb climate change and prepare the country for its effects.
It was not clear Wednesday when the budget resolution bill will receive its first vote in the Senate.
The timing of the bill is complicated by the fact that it is working its way through Congress hand-in-hand with another bill, a $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure proposal that is still being drafted.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., wants to hold votes on both the budget resolution and the infrastructure bill before the Senate breaks for its planned August recess.
On Monday, Schumer told senators to be ready to remain in Washington for part of the upcoming recess in order to pass both measures.
Schumer’s timeline for the next few weeks is very ambitious, especially considering that neither of the two massive bills Democrats intend to pass have actually been written yet.
Several centrist Democrats have indicated that they want to pass the infrastructure bill before they cast a vote for the budget resolution bill.
But progressives, who strongly support the budget resolution, want the exact opposite: proof that their ambitious budget bill can pass before they agree to join centrist Democrats and Republicans in approving the watered-down infrastructure plan.
Democrats hold only a one-vote majority in the Senate, so both bills will need the support of every Democratic senator in order to pass.
— CNBC’s Emma Newburger contributed to this report.
Article source: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/14/democrats-3point5-trillion-budget-package-funds-family-programs-clean-energy-medicare-expansion.html