President Joe Biden delivers a speech on foreign policy during a visit to the State Department in Washington on February 4, 2021.
Tom Brenner | Reuters
President Joe Biden said this weekend that a $ 15 federal minimum wage provision is unlikely to reach the next Covid-19 relief package, interrupting an important campaign pledge as Democrats in Congress move to approve $ 1 , 9 trillion in stimulus without Republican support.
Biden said his government will push for an independent bill to raise the minimum wage.
“I did, but I don’t think it will survive,” Biden told CBS ‘Norah O’Donnell in an interview scheduled to air in full on Sunday. “My guess is that it will not be in [the stimulus bill]. “
Democrats in Congress approved the $ 1.9 trillion stimulus package without Republican support in the Senate, using a parliamentary procedure known as reconciliation. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Said on Friday that the lower house plans to approve the tax relief package within two weeks.
The budget resolution guides committees to write legislation that reflects Covid de Biden’s aid package, while remaining below the $ 1.9 trillion target. Democrats plan to pass provisions such as direct payments of $ 1,400, an unemployment benefit of $ 400 a week through September, $ 350 billion in state, local and tribal government aid, a $ 20 billion and $ 50 billion national Covid vaccination program for virus testing.
The project is also likely to include $ 170 billion for K-12 schools and higher education institutions and $ 30 billion for rent and assistance with public services.
Republicans are opposed to including a salary increase in Covid-19’s aid package, warning that it could put more pressure on companies already struggling with the economic consequences of the pandemic. And West Virginia Democratic Senator Joe Manchin is also opposed to the salary increase, meaning that Democrats would have no votes to approve it even with a simple majority in reconciliation.
Although Biden said that the $ 15 an hour wage clause would hardly enter Covid’s relief bill, he promised to prioritize the approval of the wage increase in separate legislation.
“I am prepared to be the president of the United States in a separate negotiation on the minimum wage to overcome what it is now,” said Biden. “No one should work 40 hours a week and live before the poverty wage and you are earning less than $ 15 an hour, you are living below the poverty wage.”
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