WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden is planning to slow his initial burst of executive action by mid-next week and shift his focus to approving important parts of his legislative agenda, with the $ 1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package as the top priority, according to three management officials.
Biden has been quietly in touch with Republicans about the relief bill, which he wants to pass with bipartisan support, and may soon start holding personal meetings at the White House, according to an official. At the same time, the president has chosen his words carefully when evaluating former President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial.
Biden said a Senate trial needs to be held, but he refrained from revealing his views on whether Trump should be sentenced, despite his willingness to harshly criticize his predecessor without hesitation in the past.
Explaining Biden’s reticence to make his opinion known about how he thinks the Senate should vote, a government official said, “What he is trying to do is pass legislation.”
Officials said their concern was that full support for impeachment would poison Biden’s hopes of bipartisanship by making it more difficult for some Republicans to vote in favor of anything he proposes.
Biden also keeps his letters closed when it comes to discussing his reach to Republicans. Officials said Biden is maintaining ties with Republicans, but he does not want the White House to disclose them for fear that this could be counterproductive for the passage of legislation against the coronavirus. The president is evaluating the position of several Republicans in the relief bill and in a possible subsequent bill, an official said. Republican Sens. Susan Collins, from Maine, and Rob Portman, from Ohio, said they spoke to Biden this week, NBC reported on Thursday.
Biden emphasized the importance of the relief bill on Friday for reporters in the Oval Office, where he met with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Vice President Kamala Harris.
“The idea here is that we have to act now,” said Biden. “We learned from previous crises, the risk is not to do much, the risk is not to do enough,” he added.
Yellen said the “rescue plan will help millions of people get to the other side of this pandemic. It will also make some smart investments to get our economy back on track.”
Some government officials recognize in particular that Democrats in Congress are increasingly likely to have to use the budget reconciliation process to pass the relief bill. Publicly, the White House is preparing the groundwork to eventually support the process, which would allow Democrats to move forward without Republicans, in trying to rename the relief bill as a non-partisan issue.
“Republicans can still vote for a package, even if it goes through reconciliation,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Thursday, reiterating that Biden wants Republican Party support for the project.
Democrats have signaled that they are prepared to use reconciliation if Republican support is insufficient. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Who is in close contact with the White House, said on Thursday that a budget resolution that would be the vehicle for the approval of the coronavirus bill for reconciliation will be in the House. next week. “I hope we don’t need this, but if necessary, we do,” said Pelosi.
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Biden also plans to push his immigration bill in the coming weeks and, contrary to the White House’s insistence that coronavirus legislation cannot be passed in pieces, some parts of the immigration bill can be moved separately, an official said.
In the meantime, the White House is expected to execute a series of executive orders on immigration next week, including the long-awaited announcement of a task force to bring together separate migrant families under the Trump administration.
Psaki confirmed to Rachel Maddow of MSNBC on Thursday that Biden’s nominee for secretary of homeland security, Alejandro Mayorkas, will lead the task force. The Senate is due to confirm Mayorkas on Monday.
In other management news:
- Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will receive an economic briefing with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Friday morning.
- The president will travel to the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, in the afternoon to visit the wounded military.
- Secretary of State Antony Blinken chose Rob Malley as the US special envoy to Iran, the State Department confirmed on Thursday. Malley, the president of the International Crisis Group, a conflict resolution organization, served as White House coordinator for the Middle East, North Africa and the Gulf region in the Obama administration, where he helped negotiate the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran , which Trump withdrew in 2018.
Rebecca Shabad, Abigail Williams and Dareh Gregorian contributed.