- The Biden White House said on Thursday that it was not dividing its $ 1.9 trillion stimulus plan into several parts.
- “We don’t want to share the package,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters.
- Democrats are preparing to start the reconciliation process next week, a move to approve the Republican Party’s vote-less plan.
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The Biden administration on Thursday ruled out splitting its $ 1.9 trillion coronavirus relief plan in two, increasing the chances that Democrats would approve their package by majority vote using reconciliation.
“I just want to take the opportunity to be absolutely clear: we are not trying to share the package. This is not a White House proposal,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told a news conference. “It is not where our focus is or where our intention is.”
Psaki said the White House does not want to force lawmakers to prioritize one measure over the other, such as taking children back to school or providing extra federal aid to families struggling to pay for food.
“We are not going to do this in a fragmented way or break a big package that aims to resolve the crisis we face,” she said.
The comments come as the bipartisan negotiations continue and the Democrats set the stage to begin the reconciliation process next week. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Democrats in her chamber were preparing to vote on the resolution, the first step in the process.
“By the end of the week, we will finish resolving the budget, which will be about reconciliation if we need to,” Pelosi said at his weekly news conference. The Senate must also vote for one during the same period.
The budget process requires only a simple majority in the Senate, which can be an obstacle, as all 50 Democrats would need to support the aid package in the reconciliation process. Vice President Kamala Harris holds the casting vote in the House.
President Joe Biden’s $ 1.9 trillion emergency spending package includes provisions for $ 1,400 stimulus checks, improved unemployment insurance, a larger child tax credit and assistance to state and local governments.
It also includes a minimum wage of US $ 15, a measure that may not be subject to strict budget rules governing reconciliation. This component, together with its high price, generated intense republican opposition.
“I don’t think the government has drafted a bill that they would think would be a huge bipartisan success,” Republican Senator Jerry Moran of Kansas told reporters on Capitol Hill.
Still, Democrats have expressed confidence that they can embark on a legislative maneuver that could end up taking time with the downturn in the economy. On Thursday, the Department of Labor reported that about 847,000 people filed for unemployment insurance last week, a level that still beats the worst of the Great Recession a decade ago.
“We have to do everything together. Everything fits,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut told reporters on Capitol Hill. “I have zero tolerance for delays.”
Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia on Thursday avoided questions about whether he supported the budget resolution, which sets out instructions for committees to begin drafting legislative language for Biden’s plan. The conservative Democrat told reporters several times, “We are going to make Joe Biden successful.”
Progressive Democrats are pushing the Biden government for a huge aid package as negotiations with Republicans continue. A group of 54 progressive Democrats in the House sent a letter to the White House urging it to consider recurring direct payments for the aid package.
California deputy Ro Khanna, a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus who signed the letter, said in an interview that Biden’s proposal was a “strong initial offer” and Democrats should avoid weakening it to get votes from the Republican Party.
“Susan Collins was not elected president,” Khanna told Insider. “All the president put in is the plan he followed, who campaigned, who won the primaries, who won the general election – that was part of the Democratic Party platform.”