Senate could take up stimulus plan by midweek

Bill likely to see changes from House as unanimous Democratic support needed

President Joe Biden met with Democratic senators Monday, touching base with key lawmakers as the caucus hurdles toward advancing the president’s $1.9 trillion economic stimulus plan as early as this week.

Senators are still discussing possible changes to the legislation, which the House passed this past weekend without a single Republican vote. Some moderate senators who spoke with Biden pushed for targeting elements of the relief bill, as liberal senators continue to call for leaders to include an increase to the federal minimum wage after the Senate parliamentarian determined it violated Senate rules.

Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, the chairman of the Budget Committee, vowed to introduce an amendment that would raise the minimum wage to $15 by 2025 — a

provision that was included in the House legislation that passed this weekend — and called on Democrats to ignore the advice from the parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough.

Sanders, however, acknowledged “I am not sure, however, that my view at this point is the majority view in the Democratic Caucus.”

It underscores the delicate balancing act for Biden and Democratic leadership, who cannot afford to lose a single Democratic vote in the Senate in order to pass the sweeping $1.9 trillion plan on a fast-track budget process called reconciliation. Sen. Chuck Schumer, the majority leader, said he planned to advance the sweeping pandemic aid measure — which includes $1,400 checks for many Americans and billions of dollars for unemployment benefits and small businesses — this week.

“There really isn’t a lot of dispute about the overall size of the bill,” said Sen. Angus King of Maine, who was among the nine members of the Democratic caucus who met virtually with Biden. “The question is whether it can be targeted in such a way as to better serve the people who need the most and perhaps free up funds for other priorities.

Democrats are also still waiting on MacDonough to offer guidance on whether a few other provisions, including pension funding and health care subsidies that allow laid-off workers to remain on their former employer’s health plan for some time, violate Senate rules. Republicans could also challenge certain provisions within the plan as extraneous or failing to have a substantial direct impact on the federal budget under the rule that governs the reconciliation process.

The House, which passed Biden’s bill without any Republican votes, kept the increase of the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, despite the chamber’s top rules enforcer saying that it will need to be removed. The $15 wage is a top priority of progressives but lacks the votes to pass in an evenly split Senate since two centrist Democrats — Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Joe Manchin of West Virginia — are opposed to including the provision. The caucus must work out its differences quickly, because the bill is needed to extend emergency unemployment insurance programs that expire in mid-March.

Top Democrats over the weekend decided against including an amendment that would penalize corporations that pay workers less than $15 an hour, according to a person familiar with the discussion.

“I was extremely disappointed by the decision of the parliamentarian who ruled that the minimum wage provision was inconsistent with the Byrd rule and the reconciliation process,” Sanders said in announcing his amendment. “But even more importantly, I regard it as absurd that the parliamentarian, a Senate staffer elected by no one, can prevent a wage increase for 32 million workers.”