Sitting in the Oval Office with elected Republican and Democratic officials last Friday to defend his $ 1.9 trillion Covid aid package, he did not hide his skepticism.
“It looks like we’re not going to make it,” he said of raising the minimum wage.
For weeks, the White House has been trying to manage expectations about the feasibility of advancing a $ 15 hourly minimum wage provision through a broader “bailout” package. Biden first suggested that he could not reach Covid’s final relief bill in an interview with CBS before the Super Bowl, noting his belief that the Senate congressman would determine that it did not match the budget rules that allow a bill pass with only 51 votes in the Senate.
His comments attracted resistance of fellow Democrats, who argued that raising the minimum wage is not only necessary for an economically shaken country, but it is also a sound policy. They asked the White House to find ways to make it compatible with reconciliation, to push skeptical party members a huge increase in the minimum wage to board and consider the nuclear procedural option of having the party – with Vice President Kamala Harris serving as a tiebreaker vote – annul the parliamentarian.
“Given the composition of the Senate, this is our best opportunity and the right time in the midst of this pandemic, to give millions of workers a long-awaited increase,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), The Progressive Chair of the caucus, said in a press conference with reporters on Thursday.
Biden’s suggestion to mayors and governors that they begin to prepare for the absence of a minimum wage increase in Covid’s bill suggests what has been suggested elsewhere: he is reluctant to implement such strong options.
“President Biden has been consistent in public and private about his commitment to raise the minimum wage to $ 15 an hour, which is why he included it in his first major piece of legislation,” said White House spokesman Mike Gwin. “This commitment will remain unshakable, whether or not it can be done through reconciliation.”
The meeting with state and municipal leaders included an extensive conversation with Biden, addressing from the municipal service to the importance of reopening schools, with Biden shared concerns about how closed classrooms are affecting working mothers. But some in attendance made a point of rejecting his proposal to include the highest $ 15 minimum wage in the $ 1.9 trillion aid package.
Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, one of four Republicans at the meeting, emphasized to Biden and the group that he did not think the salary increase was directly related to the immediate problems caused by the pandemic, according to two sources. Biden did not refute Hogan’s argument at the time. There was also no prolonged discussion about the minimum wage. The conversation just went on.
Hogan also asked Biden to help ensure that the package was as bipartisan as possible, a point that another officer in the room said the president seemed receptive to.
“I really need your help on this,” said Biden to the group. “You need to be bipartisan.”
Democratic participants in the meeting included New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, Mayor of New Orleans Latoya Cantrell and Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan. The Republicans were Hogan, the mayor of Miami, Francis Suarez, the mayor of Arlington, Texas, mayor Jeff Williams and the governor of Arkansas, Asa Hutchinson.
Heather Caygle contributed to this report.