(KLFY) Louisiana Republican Sens. Bill Cassidy and John Kennedy joined all of their GOP colleagues in voting against the $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill that passed the Senate Saturday and will deliver $1,400 direct payments to most Americans.

Cassidy, Kennedy and the other Republicans criticized the bill as being bloated with funding unrelated to COVID relief.

It passed in a partisan 50-49 vote, with all 50 Democrats voting in favor.

Cassidy released a statement saying: “We passed five bipartisan COVID relief bills; there is no reason we could not do a sixth. I wanted to support a bill that targeted aid to those impacted by the pandemic. Instead, democrats rammed through a bill that wastes hundreds of billions of dollars on pet projects that have nothing to do with the pandemic and puts our economy at risk of inflation.”

Senator Cassidy and associates introduced two amendments to the bill that were blocked by senate democrats.

One would have prohibited economic impact payments to anyone incarcerated in a federal or state prison.

The other would have improved emergency assistance to non-public schools.