The US Senate has approved the $1.9 trillion stimulus package, which includes a third stimulus check -- of up to $1,400 -- and extended benefits for families and small businesses. The Senate voted Saturday after a reading of the entire 628-page bill on Thursday and a more than 24-hour voting session that started Friday and stretched overnight when the process got bogged down in debate over unemployment benefits.

Democrats voted down a series of Republican amendments during the marathon session, called a vote-a-rama, before approving the relief package by a 50-49 vote along party lines. Sen. Dan Sullivan, a Republican from Alaska, returned home to attend a family funeral and wasn't present for the final vote.

Remarks made by the Senate majority and minority leaders before the vote underscored the partisan divide on the bill. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Democrat from New York, said the bill "will deliver more help to more people than anything the federal government has done in decades." Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, on the other hand, said the Senate "has never spent $2 trillion in a more haphazard way or through a less rigorous process."