US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) answers questions while giving her weekly press conference with Capitol reporters at the US Capitol in Washington, January 28, 2021.
Tom Brenner | Reuters
The House will move forward next week with the process that would allow Democrats to pass a coronavirus relief bill without Republican support, spokeswoman Nancy Pelosi said on Thursday.
The California Democrat said his chamber will move to pass a budget resolution, the first step in passing legislation through reconciliation. The process would allow Senate Democrats to pass a Republican Party vote-free aid measure.
Pelosi said the House plans to pass a resolution and send it to the Capitol, where the Senate will also have to approve a budgetary measure. She hopes that “by the end of the week we will end with the budget resolution”.
The spokeswoman said she hoped Democrats would still be able to win Republican Party support for President Joe Biden’s $ 1.9 trillion bailout package, while the White House is holding talks with bipartisan lawmakers. Still, the House wants to prepare for the case that Democrats fail to win over Republicans skeptical of the price.
“We have to be ready,” she said.
Previously, Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., signaled that the chamber would also move to pass a budget resolution soon. He said the Senate “will begin the process of considering a very strong Covid relief bill as early as next week.”
Democrats have been pushing to inject more money to speed up the Covid-19 vaccination effort and support families and businesses as a slow but devastating virus wave hits the economy. While the United States recovered ground after a beating at the beginning of last year, more than 18 million people are still receiving unemployment insurance as public health restrictions remain in place.
Among the most pressing issues facing Congress, the government plans to accelerate the distribution and administration of vaccines. Programs that send $ 300 more a week to unemployed Americans and expand unemployment benefits to self-employed workers, with a contract and job expiring on March 14.
Biden’s plan sends another direct payment of $ 1,400 to most Americans, adds an unemployment supplement of $ 400 a week through September, and puts a combined $ 70 billion in Covid-19 tests and vaccine delivery efforts , among a bunch of other provisions.
While some Republicans acknowledged the need for funds to accelerate inoculation or endorsed another stimulus check, many Republican lawmakers criticized the scope of direct payments or the $ 350 billion in aid from the state and local government in Biden’s plan.
The president said he wants to wait and see how negotiations with the Republicans will move before endorsing the reconciliation process. Biden’s chief economic adviser, Brian Deese, and Covid’s response coordinator, Jeff Zients, will join a Democratic Senate summons on Thursday as the party decides how to proceed, according to NBC News.
Senator Joe Manchin, DW.V., wants his party to show a genuine effort to reach a bipartisan agreement before moving a bill through reconciliation, NBC reported. He is one of the center Democrats who has expressed concern about the cost of Biden’s plan and could in itself prevent him from passing through the Senate.
The chamber is divided 50-50 per party, but Democrats hold the majority through Vice President Kamala Harris’ tiebreaker vote.
The budget reconciliation process also restricts what Congress can put into legislation, so it is unclear whether Democrats could fit all of their policy objectives into one bill that could be approved by a majority.
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