President Joe Biden’s communications director on Sunday urged the US House to quickly approve the $ 1.9 trillion coronavirus stimulus bill, now that it has passed the Senate.
Kate Bedingfield said the government hoped there would be sufficient support for the measure in the Democratic-controlled House, which will review the bill on Tuesday. Democrats have only a 10-vote advantage in the House.
“This is historic and transformative legislation that the Senate has just passed,” said Bedingfield in CNN’s “State of the Union.” “If you are a member of Congress and are looking for the best thing you can do quickly to help people in your district, I think this bill is being passed. Therefore, we are certainly hopeful that the Chamber will move quickly. “
The bill returned to the House after the Senate changed the measure before passing the legislation, mainly by reducing the income limits for receiving $ 1,400 stimulus checks, cutting the extra unemployment insurance benefits to $ 300 from the US $ 400 a week in the House version and removing a provision that raises the federal minimum wage to $ 15 an hour.
Several progressive members of the House, including Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-12th Dist., Expressed concern about the Senate amendments. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, DN.Y., even tweeted Watson Coleman’s complaint that she was “frankly disgusted with some of my colleagues and questions whether I can support this bill.”
But Bedingfield called the project a “progressive piece of legislation”, citing praise from US Senator Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.
“You heard Senator Sanders say that this was the best legislation for workers in the modern history of this country,” she said. “This is a bill that reflects President Biden’s belief that the best way to get the economy on track and make it grow is to invest in the middle class and the working class.”
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Some of the provisions were reduced to win the support of US Senator Joe Manchin, DW.Va., whose support was crucial because no Republican Senate voted in favor of the bill. Manchin said the Senate’s amendments better target the bill to those most in need of help.
“This was targeted legislation,” said Manchin on the “This Week. “It was because people need help. And we help in all scenarios. In addition, we direct our cities, our counties, our municipalities to where they will be, for the first time, having money that they can use and control their own destiny with infrastructure, they can fix water lines now, sewer lines, they can get Internet. “
The legislation would provide $ 1,400 stimulus checks for individuals earning up to $ 75,000 and $ 2,800 checks for couples earning up to $ 150,000. Adult and child dependents would receive $ 1,400.
Checks would be phased out and would end for individuals who earn more than $ 80,000 and couples who earn more than $ 160,000. The Institute of Taxation and Economic Policy, a progressive research group, said 400,000 residents less than New Jersey would receive payments due to lower income limits than in the original House approved bill.
While 62% of Americans, including a third of Republicans, supported the $ 1.9 trillion plan in a survey by Monmouth University in late February, and 68% of Americans, including 37% of Republicans, supported it in a poll at Quinnipiac University earlier this month, the third Senate Republican, John Barrasso of Wyoming, rejected those conclusions on Sunday.
“When people find out what’s in this bill, they will lose a lot of the enthusiasm they may have for it now, because it wasn’t really a coronavirus in terms of spending,” Barrasso, president of the Senate Republican Conference, said on the program from NBC “Meet the Press. “This was a liberal wish list of liberal spending basically filled with pork.”
Barrasso complained that Biden and Congressional Democrats refused to work with Republicans on the measure. Congress passed several bipartisan-backed coronavirus stimulus projects last year, but then Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Also tried and failed to pass legislation that excluded Democratic priorities while refusing to consider two trillion dollar spending bills passed by the Democratic House that included another round of stimulus checks.
Manchin, however, said that Republican concerns were reflected in the bill that passed the Senate, even though no Republican legislator voted yes. He said the first lawmakers with whom Biden met at the White House to discuss the stimulus bill were 10 Republican senators, who countered with a $ 618 bill he rejected.
“He thought we needed to do a lot more, which is his prerogative and I support him in that, but with that, we received a lot of contributions from Republican friends throughout the process,” said Manchin at ABC.
“Many of the changes that we made and that were basically introduced in this process came from working together with my Republican and Democratic colleagues,” he continued. “They just couldn’t get there in the end. And President Biden encouraged them to get involved until the end. He talked to them until the end. “
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Jonathan D. Salant can be contacted at [email protected]. Follow him on @JDSalant.