With Republican opposition growing to the size of his $ 1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief proposal, President Joe Biden on Friday expressed his clearest support for Senate Democrats to use an accelerated budgeting tool that would allow that the legislation be passed by a simple majority.
Asked by reporters when he left the White House, “Do you support the approval of COVID’s relief through budget reconciliation?”, Biden replied, “I support the approval of COVID’s relief with the support of Republicans, if we can. But the relief from COVID has to be approved. There is no excuse. “
Biden had repeatedly focused on repeatedly calling for a bipartisan approach, reaching out across the hall to try to gather support only to be stopped by the opposition. Some Republicans expressed a willingness to consider a much smaller, “targeted” package, but none came close to supporting the level of spending advocated by Biden and Democrats in Congress.
But Biden, who met with the newly installed Treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, on Friday morning, said he is focused on providing broader relief than most Republicans can tolerate.
“We learned from previous crises; the risk is not doing much, the risk is not doing enough,” said Biden.
Earlier this week, Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer signaled that Democrats are preparing to move forward with budget reconciliation: a complex and rapid process that requires only a simple majority to pass legislation, instead of 60. usual votes needed to overcome an obstruction and move forward. In a Senate now divided into 50/50, the procedure could allow Democrats to pass legislation without a single Republican in favor, with Vice President Kamala Harris being able to vote for the tiebreaker.
“If our Republican colleagues decide to oppose this urgent and necessary legislation, we will have to move forward without them,” said Schumer on Thursday. “We have a responsibility to help the American people quickly.”
The vote on a Senate budget resolution, which is the first step in starting the reconciliation process, is scheduled for next week in the Senate. Then he would go to the Chamber for consideration.
Republicans are blaming the crime, warning Democrats that using reconciliation to approve COVID’s relief will dampen Biden’s calls for unity throughout his campaign and in his inaugural speech.
“If reconciliation is chosen as the COVID’s legislative vehicle, it will make President @JoeBiden’s inaugural address look very empty,” tweeted Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-SC.
Graham urged the government to follow a bipartisan path.
“It would take effort, but apparently very little effort is being shown by the Biden administration when it comes to bipartisanship in relieving COVID.”
Senator Todd Young, R-Ind., Echoed Graham, telling reporters on Thursday that seeking reconciliation “will send a signal to America, and to Republicans throughout Congress, that this president’s message of unity is rhetoric as opposed to substance “.
Reconciliation was used by both parties to approve controversial priorities in the past. According to the Congressional Research Service, the process has been used 25 times since its first use in 1980.
While Republicans continue to criticize Biden’s plan, Democrats are left with little choice but to go it alone to fulfill Biden’s campaign promise, despite initial consensus-building efforts by the bipartisan parliamentary group that helped draft the latest bill. of relief law COVID-19.
This group spoke with the head of the White House National Economic Council, Brian Deese, last weekend, and some had additional private conversations. Republicans left calling on the government to adjust its approach more narrowly.
Discussions about reconciliation “are certainly not helpful” for the group’s efforts, said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who is part of the bipartisan effort.
Senator Rob Portman, R-Ohio, also participated in the bipartisan talks and said he is working to “try to convince the government that they should work with us instead of interfering in Congress with a strictly partisan vote”.
There is an appetite among some Republican senators for specific legislation that includes funding for vaccine development and distribution.
“The most attractive thing I’ve heard so far would be to break the health implementation part of the vaccine and have a bill that would probably be approved almost universally,” said Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo. “But I have no particular reason to believe that this idea, which came from one of our friends on the Democratic side, is going to move forward.”
Many at the GOP conference feel that the $ 920 billion allocated in the latest COVID aid package should be disbursed more fully before another major aid measure is approved. This legislation extended protections for tenants, unemployment benefits and other important provisions. These extensions do not begin to expire in a few weeks.
“I’m not sure I understand why there is a serious emergency now,” said Portman on Thursday.
But Democrats argue that time is of the essence, and government officials made it clear this week that the aid package would not be split in two.
Senator Dick Durbin, D-Ill., Cited the March 14 deadline when the federal government’s increased unemployment benefits – provided in last month’s aid package – expire as a reason for the rush. The Biden plan would increase these weekly benefits from $ 300 to $ 400 and extend aid until September.
Some Democrats, like Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., Urged Republicans to focus on the budget bill’s priorities that will appeal to them.
And Senator Chris Murphy, D-Conn., Noted that reconciliation need not be a purely partisan approach, although history shows that the procedure rarely attracts bipartisan support.
“Reconciliation does not require you to get just 50 votes, so there is no reason why Republicans cannot vote on the package, even if we use reconciliation.”
Reconciliation, however, has a long way to go to cross the finish line. Democrats are looking to get measures like a federal minimum wage more than doubled – to $ 15 an hour – through reconciliation, a feat that even House Budget Committee Chairman John Yarmuth, D-Ky., Recently called “stretching”. The budget tool was designed to be used in these three areas: direct spending (rights, food stamps, other mandatory expenses), revenue (taxes) and deficit reduction.
And the wage increase will certainly be contested by Republicans, who say that companies affected by the pandemic could not pay for the increase.
Still, Senator Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., The new chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, insisted that he and his budget experts intend to show that a $ 15 hourly minimum wage increase would result in “dramatic reduction of the deficit “.
“I think the argument is that raising the minimum wage will have a profound impact on the budget, on the entire budget. … If you’re earning $ 15 an hour, you’re less likely to have to continue with one form or another of assistance. public. “
ABC News’s Molly Nagle, Sarah Kolinovsky and Ben Gittleson contributed to this report