Dems gear up to pass stimulus bill quickly
Democrats begin the final push for President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus bill this week, dropping any pretense of bipartisanship to quickly pass the package before an earlier round of benefits runs out.
This will be the first real test for Democrats’ full control of government since former President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial, with implications for the rest of Biden’s agenda and the pandemic-battered economy. The House plans to vote as soon as Friday on the Democrats’ stimulus package, setting up a Senate vote as soon as next week.
Resolving the final hurdles, especially disagreement among Senate Democrats about a provision phasing in a $15-per-hour federal minimum wage, would clear the way for Biden to give his first address to a joint session of Congress in March outlining his next policy goals, including a multitrillion-dollar infrastructure bill.
“The Senate is on track to send a robust $1.9 trillion package to the president’s desk before the March 14 expiration of unemployment insurance benefits” from the last round of stimulus, Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a Friday letter to colleagues. “We will meet this deadline.”
In public, the focus will be on the House this week, with a floor vote on the bill as soon as Friday. The content of the bill is mostly locked in — the Budget Committee isn’t even allowed to make substantive changes — and there’s no sign of a rebellion by the few remaining Democratic deficit hawks imperiling the bill on the floor.
The real action will be behind closed doors in the Senate, where Democratic leaders are hammering out the changes needed to get all 50 Senate Democrats and independents on board.
Biden initially sought some GOP support for his stimulus proposal, which includes $1,400 checks for individuals making less than $75,000, resources for vaccine distribution, funds for schools to reopen and $400 per week in supplemental unemployment insurance. But Republicans said the plan was too expensive, coming after last year’s $2 trillion and $900 billion virus relief packages enacted in March and late December, respectively.
During a tour Friday of a Michigan Pfizer plant that’s producing the coronavirus, Biden called on Congress to pass his plan. He also urged Republicans in Congress to listen to their constituents and vote for the bill, citing polls saying a majority of Americans support the measure.
“Critics say my plan is too big,” Biden told reporters. “Let me ask them: What would they have me cut? What would they have me leave out? Should we not invest $20 billion to vaccinate the nation?”
But most Republicans are expected to oppose the bill, with House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, R-LA., telling his GOP conference to vote against it. Speaking Sunday on ABC’S “This Week,” Scalise said it makes no sense to pass the package when there are unspent funds from the last relief bill and growing concerns about the nation’s debt.
The Congressional Budget Office said Saturday that the bill slightly exceeds $1.9 trillion, which will force House Democrats to make trims before the bill can pass the Senate.