The 75-minute call, organized by Senator Joe Manchin (DW.Va.), is one of the first major calls that the Biden government made while working to build inter-party support for the $ 1.9 trillion plan. Senators asked for more data on how the White House carried out its plan.
Senators told White House officials that they support spending more on vaccine distribution, but some declined stimulus payments, urging the White House to make them targets, according to sources in the call. Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) lobbied Biden officials about why families who earn $ 300,000 would be eligible and called for a focus on low-income workers.
“I was the first to raise this issue, but there seemed to be a lot of agreement … that these payments need to be more targeted,” said Collins in an interview. “I would say it was not clear to me how the government came up with $ 1.9 trillion for the package.”
Collins said the first line number was a “concern” for her and that her bipartisan team, led by Collins and Manchin, needed to meet to find out how to respond to a proposal that Republican senators say cannot be passed in the Senate. That group was instrumental in approving a $ 900 billion package in December, which many Republicans say makes it difficult to approve an immediate large package. That package included $ 600 in direct payments to many Americans.
“I’m going to suggest that we get together and talk about what we think would be a reasonable package that could garner bipartisan support,” said Collins. “The government is clearly eager to act very quickly. And we want to make sure there is a justification, especially as there is a lot of money left over from previous packages. “
Senator Angus King (I-Maine) also questioned the price: “This is not monopoly money”, as he said.
“There is a fundamental decision here on the part of the government and whether they want to work on negotiating a bipartisan proposal or try to move the bigger package through reconciliation,” King said of the party’s legislative tactics. “It didn’t come out explicitly today, but it’s kind of in the background.”
But King added that Biden’s employees on the call were open to the senators’ suggestions, and the main line number was specifically discussed in the call. “If they were interested in just getting over it, they wouldn’t have stopped the Packers game,” he joked, adding that both the White House and the senators were eager to reach an agreement.
Senator Jeanne Shaheen (DN.H.) praised the new White House for establishing such a quick link with the bipartisan group, a departure from the previous administration. She said the senators asked for more data on the state of funding relief from state and local governments to get “a better sense” of the government’s “priorities” and how they came up with the plan.
“This was a general problem that was expressed around a number of things: the more targeted assistance can be where it is most needed, the more useful,” said Shaheen.
Senators agreed, however, that vaccine distribution should be given priority over provisions like the $ 15 minimum wage, which cannot be supported by 10 Republicans. For the time being, the Biden government is seeking a bill through a regular order, rather than a budget reconciliation, which can be used to avoid an obstruction. But even some Democrats have indicated that they are not sold in the Biden package.
Representatives Josh Gottheimer (DN.J.) and Tom Reed (RN.Y.), co-chairs of House Problem Solvers Caucus, also attended the call.
The White House called for urgent action by Congress to send more money to hard-hit communities and more resources to help increase vaccinations, as the death toll exceeded 400,000 earlier this month. Biden promised to give 100 million vaccines to Americans in the first 100 days.