Washington – Congress Democrats are preparing to move forward with a procedure that will allow them to pass coronavirus relief legislation without Republican votes, in case lawmakers fail to reach a bipartisan agreement on a new round of federal aid.
President Nancy Pelosi announced on Thursday that the House will present a budget resolution next week, the first step in using the process of budget conciliation to pass an invoice. Republicans have expressed concern over the price of President Biden’s $ 1.9 trillion relief proposal, meaning the bill may not receive enough votes to advance in the Senate without using reconciliation.
“I hope we don’t need it, but if necessary, we will have it,” Pelosi told reporters Thursday about the option of using budget conciliation, a maneuver that can be used to pass the bill by a simple majority in the Senate. “We want him to always be bipartisan, but we can’t give up.”
Caroline Brehman / CQ-Roll Call, Inc. via Getty Images
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Thursday in a speech on the Senate floor that the upper house “would begin the process of considering a very strong COVID relief bill” next week.
“Our preference is to do this important bipartisan work, to include contributions, ideas and reviews from our Republican colleagues or bipartisan efforts to do the same. But if our fellow Republicans decide to oppose this urgent and necessary legislation, we must move on without them, ”Schumer said. The White House has noted that it is unwilling to split the proposal into smaller accounts, and is confident of reaching an agreement on a larger package.
Democrats have a narrow majority of 50 seats in the Senate, with Vice President Kamala Harris casting any tiebreaker vote, and most legislation requires 60 votes in the Senate to end the debate. Unless Democrats get the support of ten Republicans, the proposal would not move forward. The White House is in talks with a bipartisan group of 16 senators to reach an agreement, but even if the eight Republicans in that coalition agreed to vote on the bill, Democrats would still need two more Republican votes to reach the 60-year mark. votes.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, the top Democrat on the Senate Budget Committee, told reporters earlier this week that Democrats are working on a budget resolution, which could be tabled as early as this week. next.
“Everyone wants to work bipartisanly, hopefully Republicans will join. But the fact is that today this country is facing an unprecedented crisis in terms of a pandemic,” Sanders told reporters Wednesday. “We have a problem. The American people are hurting and we need to respond quickly. I hope my fellow Republicans join. But if we don’t, let’s move on.”
Budget reconciliation speeds up procedures in the House and Senate and allows certain types of legislation to be advanced with just a simple majority, meaning Democrats would not need a Republican vote to pass the bill.
“I certainly hope we have a bipartisan approach, but we need a substantial approach. We need it on time and I hope they join us in this effort,” said Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin, one of the members of the bipartisan group. with the White House, he said Thursday. He also said Mr Biden has called on Republican senators, saying there has been “a direct personal disclosure of the president to these Republicans in the hope that we can do so on a bipartisan basis.”
Durbin warned that there is a “very real possibility” that Congress could move forward in the budget reconciliation process if they do not reach an agreement soon. But approving the relief proposal through budget reconciliation could undermine Biden’s message that he wanted to work with Republicans on a bipartisan basis in taking office and sowing distrust among Republicans against the administration.
“This will send a signal to the United States and Republicans across Congress that this president’s message of unity was rhetorical rather than substantive,” Republican Sen. Todd Young, who passed the proposal, told senators Thursday. through budgetary conciliation.
Republican Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio, a member of the bipartisan group of senators who met with White House chief aide Brian Deese on Sunday to discuss the relief package, has become increasingly concerned about the Biden administration’s approach to working with Republicans on the measure.
“It’s good to talk about bipartisanship, but it’s much better to do it,” Portman told reporters Tuesday. “If the House decides to move forward with the reconciliation approach, which is a way to move from work with Republicans, I think it would not only be a big mistake at this stage at the beginning of this administration, but irresponsible taking account of what happened to the COVID-19 package. “
There is a problem when using budget conciliation: legislation could be subject to what is colloquially known as the “Byrd rule,” which limits the provisions that can be included. The rule, named after the late Senator Robert Byrd, prohibits “alien” provisions in the conciliation, so only items that affect federal budget spending are included. Some of the provisions of Mr. Biden’s proposal, such as raising the minimum wage to $ 15 an hour and implementing paid family leave, may not meet the requirements to be included under Byrd’s rule.
Republican Sen. John Cornyn warned that breaching Byrd’s rule to allow approval of a $ 15 minimum wage “would destroy the Senate as an institution as bad as eliminating the filibuster.” The elimination of the legislative filibuster, a movement supported by the progressives of the Congress, would allow to approve all the legislation by simple majority.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki reiterated Thursday that President Biden still wants the COVID-19 relief package to be bipartisan, as Congress Democrats want to use the procedural method as a vehicle to approve a package. of relief COVID-19 with a simple majority of votes. But he said Republicans can unite through reconciliation, even when Republicans oppose key components of the proposal.
“Republicans can still vote for a package” if it goes through reconciliation, Psaki said.
Asked if Mr. Biden will sign a bill that has no Republican support, Psaki replied, “Well we’re not there at all, that gets us a few steps ahead of where we are now.”
One of the top officials in the Biden administration held a call with Senate Democrats Thursday afternoon and answered questions that “had to do with politics,” one of the participants in the call said.
This participant said that “there were no discussions about the rupture,” that is, the idea of breaking the legislation into separate parts.
Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut said the call was “excellent” and added that the COVID-19 relief package should not be split.
“We have to do it all together. Everything fits,” Blumenthal said. “I have, I have zero tolerance for delay. I don’t have the patience to waste time, we have to do it all together. I think that’s the general feeling of the caucus.”
The White House threw cold water on the idea of splitting a package on Thursday.
“We don’t want to split this package. This is not a White House proposal,” Psaki said.
Ed O’Keefe, Jack Turman and Kathryn Watson contributed to the information.