President betting on the House

The House of Representatives is set to vote — once again — on the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package Wednesday, circling back on the massive bill days after it cleared the Senate.

The sprawling bill is widely expected to again clear the House — which is reviewing the bill due to Senate revisions — and give President Biden his first major legislative win in the Democratic-controlled Congress.

“Our members have good judgment, and they know that this legislation is just something historic and transformative,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Tuesday. “We feel pretty confident.”

The American Rescue Plan, as the legislation is called, includes $1,400 stimulus checks for all adults making less than $75,000 annually and couples earning up to $150,000, as well as billions of dollars in aid for struggling small businesses and state and local governments.

But wary Republicans have voiced significant reservations about the bill, pointing to Democrats’ crowing that it is among the most progressive pieces of legislation in US history with costly provisions that, they say, have little to do with fighting COVID-19.

“Stop calling it a ‘COVID relief’ bill,” tweeted House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Tuesday, along with a photo of a list headlined “The Pelosi Payoff.”

The list includes such expenditures as $200 million for “museum and library services,” $600 million for “Pelosi’s home of San Fran” and $350 billion “to bail out blue states.”

Despite Biden’s repeated assurances that he prioritizes bipartisanship, the bill only cleared the Senate after a marathon 26-hour session of debate along a strict party-line vote.

The upper chamber is locked in a 50-50 party split, but Vice President Kamala Harris, as president of the Senate, holds the power to break ties, effectively clinching Democratic control.

The bill previously passed the House 219212 with two Democrats in opposition.