White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Sunday that President Joe Biden is still open to lowering the income limit for $ 1,400 stimulus checks in his $ 1.9 trillion aid package. She also indicated that direct payments could be delayed by weeks, as Democrats find the best way to go for the $ 15 minimum wage measure.
Biden is willing to further target checks to “make sure they reach the Americans who need the most help,” said Psaki. Fox News Sunday, adding that the president will not negotiate the size of direct payments.
The House of Representatives passed ample relief legislation on Friday night, taking it to the Senate, where Republicans are expected to submit several amendments to the bill. Any approved amendments will be sent back to the Chamber for a final vote.
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On Tuesday, Senator Susan Collins said she is in talks with Democrats over lowering the income limit for direct payments as an amendment. Democratic Senator Dick Durbin confirmed on Sunday the ongoing amendment negotiations, saying “this is one of the topics that the bipartisan group of senators has raised from the start,” according to Hill.
Under the current bill, individuals who earn less than $ 75,000 a year would receive $ 1,400 and couples who earn less than $ 150,000 would receive $ 2,800. Those who earn over the limit would receive smaller payments and individuals who earn more than $ 100,000 would be eliminated completely. Eligibility requirements are in line with the first two rounds of checks that were sent under former President Donald Trump.
Earlier this month, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi indicated that Democrats expected the bill to pass Congress by the end of February. Senate Democrats paved the way to use the budget process called reconciliation to approve the package without Republican Party support, but it would require all Democrats in the upper house to vote on the measure, as all 50 Republican senators must vote against.
Moderate Democratic senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona have said they are opposed to raising the minimum wage to $ 15.
This week, Senate congresswoman Elizabeth MacDonough, a non-partisan interpreter of the house rules, decided that the $ 15 minimum wage did not meet the reconciliation requirements. After his decision, Democrats spent the weekend exploring other ways to approve the salary increase.
On Fox News Sunday, Psaki reaffirmed Biden’s commitment to the $ 15 minimum wage and insisted he would find a way forward, while warning that it could take “days or even several weeks”.
“The president supports exactly what Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont does, which is to raise the minimum wage for the American people who are trying to survive. And he thinks that was already very important,” she added.
The House’s progressive Democrats warned that they could deny their vote in favor of the legislation if the upper house removes the salary increase. “I don’t think we can go back to the voters and say, ‘Look, I know that Republicans, Democrats and independents support this; we promised that, but because of an unelected MP who gave us a decision, we couldn’t do that,’ ‘Pramila Jayapal of Washington, who chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus, told reporters on Friday.
Newsweek contacted the White House for comment.