The Democrat-led House of Representatives is expected to pass another sweeping relief bill in the face of the pandemic that's killed over 500 thousand Americans, crossing one of the biggest hurdles in the arduous process of enacting the $1.9 trillion bill into law.
Democrats in the evenly divided Senate already had to use the reconciliation process to bypass the filibuster and pass a budget resolution allowing for the bill's construction.
The party's focus on the bill comes after months of Democrats campaigning on expanded relief to earn support for a legislative majority. Though Democrats didn't fare as well as some predicted, the party held on to its majority in the House, won the White House, and earned a narrow Senate majority.
With the bill on the verge of passing the House, the Associated Press is under fire for rhetoric used in its headline describing the procedure.
The AP reported that Democrats were ready to "shove" the legislation through the House, implying methods more insidious than the majority party simply passing legislation on which it campaigned.
Some looked back at AP's reporting on Trump's tax policy, a deeply unpopular bill for which Republicans—like Democrats in 2021—used the reconciliation process to bypass the filibuster. The bill passed by only three votes in the Senate and 23 votes in the 435 member House.
But that passage appears to have been covered quite differently.
People found the AP's characterization of the procedure biased or, at the very least, unnecessary.
An overwhelming three-quarter majority of all American voters supports the latest relief bill.
