Pennsylvania's two U.S. senators were as split on their comments as they were on their decisions regarding the passing of Saturday's $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill.

The Senate approved the American Rescue Plan by a 50-49 party-line vote. The bill will need final approval by the U.S. House this week before it would reach President Joe Biden's desk.

Sen. Bob Casey, Democrat, voted to approve the bill.“When the House passes the American Rescue Plan and sends it to President Biden's desk, we will put more money in the pockets of working families, help our children return to school safely and ensure everyone who wants to can be vaccinated,” said Casey in a statement after the vote.Sen. Pat Toomey, Republican, voted against the package.“This year, President Biden and congressional Democrats refused to work with Republicans and instead rammed through a wasteful $1.9 trillion bill on a strictly partisan vote,” said Toomey in a statement Saturday.The package cost nearly one-tenth the amount of the entire U.S. economy. Biden has said it was his biggest immediate priority.“This nation has suffered too much for much too long,” Biden told reporters at the White House after the vote. “And everything in this package is designed to relieve the suffering and to meet the most urgent needs of the nation, and put us in a better position to prevail.”

The bill passed by the Senate provides direct payments of up to $1,400 for most Americans and extends emergency unemployment benefits. The bill would also create spending for COVID-19 vaccines and testing, states and cities, schools and ailing industries, along with tax breaks to help lower-earning people, families with children and consumers buying health insurance.Casey said the bill in its current form includes portions he wrote, including investments in home and community-based services; funding for nursing homes; and assistance for child care costs.“Now that the Senate has passed the American Rescue Plan, the country is one step closer to putting the virus behind us,” Casey said.The Democrats hold a slim 10-vote House edge, making it feasible the bill will advance this week, but it won't be entirely uncontested.Not one Republican senator backed the bill or when it initially passed the House.Like Toomey, many Republicans call the measure a wasteful spending spree that ignores recent indications that the pandemic and economy was turning the corner.“This bill is not about responding to COVID. It is about exploiting the final stretch of a public health crisis in order to enact a long-standing liberal wish list for years into the future,” Toomey said. “Only a fraction of the funds in this bill can even be spent this year.”Toomey claims the bill would make Obamacare subsidies available to people with six-figure incomes; send $350 billion to blue states and cities; and send $1,400 stimulus checks to violent incarcerated criminals.“None of this is COVID-related, yet it is all in this spending monstrosity,” he said. “At the same time, this bill fails to address the biggest problem facing Americans: fully reopening businesses and getting kids back to school as quickly as possible.”While arguments will continue over the version now in the hands of the House, the bill had been altered over the past couple days.Under a compromise, the promise of $300 weekly emergency unemployment checks — on top of regular state benefits — would be renewed, with a final payment Sept. 6. There would also be tax breaks on some of that aid, helping people the pandemic abruptly tossed out of jobs and risked tax penalties on the benefits.Also, the Senate voted Friday to reject a House-approved boost in the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2025. Eight Democrats opposed the increase; however Casey was not one of them.Party leaders also agreed to restrict eligibility for the $1,400 stimulus checks for most Americans. That amount would be gradually reduced until, under the Senate bill, it reaches zero for people earning $80,000 and couples making $160,000. Those ceilings were higher in the House version.<i>The Associated Press contributed to this report.</i>

Bob Casey

Pat Toomey