White House hopes for bipartisan aid deal fade

Biden signals Democrats should pass package, with or without GOP support

WASHINGTON — Hopes at the White House for bipartisan agreement on a COVID-19 relief package are fading little more than a week after President Joe Biden took office and made enacting his $1.9 trillion proposal his top priority, an early setback that showcases Washington’s enduring partisan divide.

The president began the week on Monday saying he was “open to negotiate” on his plan, but no counterproposal emerged. With

Republicans balking at Biden’s price tag, Democratic congressional leaders kick-started a move to proceed without them. Steps toward a so-called reconciliation bill, which Democrats can move on their own, begin this week.

After Republicans cried foul, saying the unilateral moves by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer amounted to a rejection of a bipartisan approach, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Friday that the question instead was why GOP members were blocking the proposal, given broad public support.

The president made clear that he wouldn’t halt the maneuvering toward a package supported by Democrats only.

“I support passing COVID relief with support from Republicans if we can get it. But the COVID relief has to pass — there’s no ifs, ands or buts,” Biden said Friday. Before a meeting with his economic team earlier in the day, he warned that an entire cohort of children face the danger of weaker lifetime earnings because of the crisis.

Economic data on Friday underscored both the shakiness of the recovery and the potential for fiscal spending to make a difference. Consumer spending fell for a second straight month in December. But personal income climbed, thanks in part to the early distribution of assistance from the $900 billion December relief bill.

Failure to secure bipartisan backing is a major disappointment for the new president, who in his Jan. 20 inauguration speech spoke about the need for unity after the bitter partisanship and violence of the final days of Donald Trump’s presidency. It also follows his own individual outreach efforts to members of the Senate, the chamber where he worked for 36 years.

Biden called Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Ohio’s Rob Portman – who recently announced he won’t be running for reelection, something that might have made him less subject to partisan pressures.

Yet by Friday afternoon, no GOP member of the chamber had come out to back his package. Republicans including Sens. Roy Blunt of Missouri and Mitt Romney of Utah were open to looking at more money for coronavirus vaccines and testing, spurring speculation that Biden’s plan could be split. The idea: move ahead with a slimmed-down bipartisan bill, then proceed with the more politically contentious items through the reconciliation route.

The White House made clear that wasn’t going to happen. “We’re not going to break it apart,” Psaki said Friday.

The focus now appears to be shifting toward holding the Democratic caucus together, something that will be critical given the 50-50 partisan split in the Senate. Vice President Kamala Harris conducted local media interviews with outlets in West Virginia and Arizona — the home states of moderate senators Joe Manchin, Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly, each of whom could prove crucial to passing a reconciliation bill.