Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) backed a Republican amendment blocking the raising of the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour during the pandemic in Thursday’s late-night Senate “vote-a-rama” session, which involved consideration of multiple amendments to President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion pandemic relief bill. Following the nearly 15-hour long marathon session, the Senate approved a budget resolution early Friday morning, a preliminary step to budget reconciliation—the process that will allow Senate Democrats to pass the relief bill by a simple majority, rather than a 60-vote supermajority, which would require some GOP buy-in. At one point during the vote-a-rama, Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) proposed an amendment that would ban the $15 minimum wage boost during the pandemic. “A $15 federal minimum wage would be devastating for our hardest-hit small businesses at a time when they can least afford it,” Ernst said. Sanders, a vocal proponent of raising the minimum wage, responded …