WASHINGTON – President Biden indicated in a call with House Democrats that he was open to sending $ 1,400 payments to a smaller group of Americans in the next round of coronavirus relief legislation and changing the overall price of his $ plan. 1.9 trillion, according to people familiar with the call.
Biden told House Democrats on Wednesday that he would not change the amount of the proposed payments of $ 1,400, saying that that amount was promised to people, according to the people.
Instead, he said he would consider targeting them differently from the previous two rounds of direct aid to Americans. Members of both parties questioned whether the $ 1,400 payments he proposed would go to people who do not need help.
“We can better target that number. I’m fine with that, ”said Biden, according to the people.
Biden also said he was flexible about the overall cost of the package, which Democrats began to refer in Congress through a process that will allow them to refer him along party lines, according to a person familiar with the call. He said Democrats can make “concessions” on several of the proposal’s programs, the person said.
Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer, speaking to reporters on Wednesday outside the West Wing, after a meeting with President Biden.
Photograph:
Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Wednesday that Biden is open to changes in the limit of who would qualify to receive the $ 1,400 stimulus checks. “More segmentation means not the size of the check,” she said. “It means the income level of the people who receive the check, and that is something that is being discussed.”
Psaki said Biden does not expect the final package to be exactly the same as what he proposed. “He knows that this is part of the legislative process,” she said.
Speaking to reporters at the White House on Wednesday, after a meeting with Biden, Senator Chris Coons (D., Del.) Said: “We had a conversation about direct payments and how they can be modified to ensure that they are targeted. ”He added that Biden“ will not forget the middle class ”.
Biden later met with another group of Democratic senators in the Oval Office on Wednesday. After the meeting, Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer told reporters that it was a substantive discussion and that many details of the package have emerged.
“We want to do this bipartisan, but we must be strong,” said Schumer. “We cannot delay, we cannot delay, we cannot dilute, because the problems that this nation has and the opportunities that we can bring them are very big.”
The meetings are the latest in a series the new president has had with lawmakers. Biden hosted a group of 10 Senate Republicans at the White House on Monday to discuss the $ 618 billion alternative to his plan. He spoke to Senate Democrats on Tuesday, asking lawmakers to adopt a big package and calling the Republican Party’s plan too small.
Ten Republican senators offered a $ 618 billion coronavirus relief plan to contain the $ 1.9 trillion stimulus project that President Biden outlined after taking office. Gerald F. Seib of the WSJ explains the significant differences between the two proposals. Photo illustration: Laura Kammermann
—Tarini Parti contributed to this article.
Write to Andrew Duehren at [email protected] and Eliza Collins at [email protected].
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