- Democrats began the reconciliation process on Monday, a move to approve Biden’s $ 1.9 trillion aid package without the Republican Party.
- “The cost of inaction is high and rising, and the time for decisive action is now,” said Pelosi and Schumer.
- The development came before a meeting between Biden and a group of Senate Republicans who were pressing him to downsize his plan.
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Democrats filed a joint budget resolution in Congress on Monday, initiating efforts to circumvent Republicans in economic relief. It is the first step towards securing President Joe Biden’s $ 1.9 trillion emergency spending package without the support of the Republican Party.
“Congress has a responsibility to quickly provide comprehensive and immediate relief to the American people suffering from COVID-19,” said Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in a joint statement. “The cost of inaction is high and rising, and the time for decisive action is now.”
The resolution instructs the committees to draft legislation for Biden’s proposal by February 16. Titled “The American Rescue Plan”, it contains $ 400 of federal unemployment benefits as of the end of September, $ 1,400 for stimulus payments and $ 160 billion in vaccines. funds for virus distribution and testing, among other measures.
Congressional Democrats announced the resolution just hours before Biden met with a group of 10 Senate Republicans. The working group – led by Senator Susan Collins of Maine – launched a $ 618 billion stimulus counter offer on Monday.
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This would reduce federal spending on a variety of relief measures, including stimulus checks and unemployment insurance. The Republican proposal included $ 1,000 in direct payments to Americans and $ 300 in federal unemployment benefits as of June 30. It allocated the same amount of funding for vaccines and testing as the Biden plan.
Many Republican congressmen are vehemently opposed to Biden’s proposal, arguing that the economy does not need another major injection of federal spending after lawmakers approved $ 900 billion in December. Last year, Congress authorized about $ 4 trillion in emergency spending through a handful of bills.
The Biden government strongly defended its relief proposal before the evening’s meeting.
“His view is that the size of the package needs to be compatible with the crises we are facing. That is why he proposed $ 1.9 trillion,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told a news conference on Monday market. She added that “it is not a forum for the president to make or accept an offer”.
“It is important for him to listen to this group about his concerns, his ideas,” she said. “He is always open to make this package stronger.”
The White House meeting ended in about two hours and Vice President Kamala Harris was also present. The group gave a press conference two minutes later. Collins called the meeting an “excellent meeting” and expressed confidence that a bipartisan agreement could be reached, but did not answer questions.
“It was a very good exchange of views,” said Collins at the White House driveway. “I wouldn’t say that we arrived together in a package tonight. Nobody expected this, but what we agreed to do is to accompany and talk more with the staff and between us.”
After the meeting, Psaki released a statement calling the discussion productive, but said that Biden would not delay work in responding to the crisis and would not be content with a package that did not “fulfill the moment”.
“Although there were areas of agreement, the president also reiterated his view that Congress should respond with boldness and urgency, and noted many areas that the Republican senators’ proposal does not address,” said Psaki.
She said Biden remains hopeful that the group can continue to discuss ways to improve the American Rescue Plan and find areas of consensus.
Many Democrats in Congress are criticizing the Republican plan as deeply insufficient to cope with the crisis. Notably, it contained no help for state and local governments, one of the top Democratic priorities. It also did not set aside any financing for rental assistance, a larger child tax credit or an increase to the minimum wage.
Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, the next Democratic chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said in a statement that the Republican Party’s proposal was “too small to provide the relief the American people need”. He warned of another cliff of unemployment for millions of workers laid off in just six weeks.
Congress’ failure to pass more federal legislation would cause increased unemployment benefits to expire on March 14. Michele Evermore, a policy analyst on the National Labor Bill, said many states were still struggling to restart their unemployment benefits after Congress allowed them to lapse last month.
“These are people who have been on low wages for months,” she told Insider. “The people who wait the longest are the ones who exhausted them before the end of December.”