A bipartisan group of senators is lobbying the White House for more details about its $ 1.9 trillion bailout plan, with some suggesting to government officials on Sunday that President Biden needs to provide more information about how the money would be spent – and consider splitting its ambitious legislation into smaller proposals.
Sixteen senators from both major parties and three senior advisers to the White House met virtually Sunday afternoon to discuss Biden’s Rescue Plan for the United States. The one-hour, 15-minute call was made by Democratic Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia.
Relief plan proposed by Mr. Biden includes $ 400 billion to slow the spread of COVID-19 and increase vaccination capacity; more than $ 1 trillion to help families in need of direct financial support; and $ 440 billion in emergency funds for small businesses and low-income communities.
Included in the package are $ 1,400 stimulus checks that, combined with the recent $ 600 round of payments, raise the total relief sent to Americans to $ 2,000. The amount of direct aid to send to individuals was a critical point in the negotiations for the aid package approved in late 2020. Other financial aid includes expanding unemployment insurance by $ 100, raising the weekly total to $ 400 and raising the tax infant credit of $ 3,000 per child.
Meeting participants emphasized that they are pressing the government for more details on how quickly it can distribute the vaccine across the country, saying it is an urgent priority.
“There was certainly a consensus that the number one priority is vaccination,” said Maine Sen. Angus King, an independent. “And also testing and tracking, we cannot give up on that. But there is a consensus that we need to identify the bottlenecks, whether in the production, distribution, administration of the vaccine, and act aggressively on it. Everyone believes that this is number one priority, and there was absolute consensus about this. “
Some of the participants signaled that they would like the Senate to work out a framework for an agreement in the next two weeks – before ex-President Trump’s impeachment trial begins on February 8. But others said the impeachment trial did not appear on the call.
Although some participants considered the meeting “productive” and a good first step, Republican Senator Susan Collins, who attended the meeting, considered it “premature” to discuss legislative action of this size and scope. She said she would be suggesting a more “targeted” package, especially with a focus on vaccine distribution.
Representatives from both parties to the call said they would pressure the Biden government for more clarity on how it calculated the potential federal aid needed for schools, states and cities. Some senators are asking for more information on how aid could be distributed to low-income municipalities and states.
King said there was a “reasonable discussion about the data” to find out how aid was calculated.
“In other words, they have, I think, $ 130 billion for education,” said King. “Where does this come from? What is the basis for this? And there were questions about it. Another kind of detail question is: how much money is still in the pipeline? How much has been committed and derived from previous aid packages?”
Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, who also attended Sunday’s meeting, said “more data would be useful”.
She said there is a lot of discussion about “targeted aid” to states, especially recognizing which states will have positive revenue and will require less aid.
“State and local needs are one of the things that remain an issue,” said Shaheen. “It was a problem, as we were trying to assemble the last COVID package in December.”
But Shaheen called it a “really positive start”.
“The fact that we have a new government not even a week at work and they are reaching out to the bipartisan group of senators who were really important in completing the latest COVID aid package,” said Shaeen. “It was an opportunity to hear from the management the reasoning behind what is in the COVID package and for us to ask questions and express our opinions.”
Congress approved a $ 900 billion aid package in December, which several senators mentioned when discussing Sunday’s call.
“Remember, we just approved a nearly a trillion dollar package less than three weeks ago,” said King. “So we need to know where this is in terms of execution, how much has been distributed, how much remains, to what extent the money that has not been spent has been accounted for in the new proposal.”