Senate Republicans are likely to work with President Joe Biden on a new coronavirus-boosting bill, Sunday said they would support a bill with less than one-third of the $ 1.9 billion he proposed for new direct payments of $ 1,400, support to state and local governments and the manufacture and distribution of vaccines.
US Senate President Bill Cassidy, R-La, told Fox News Sunday that the GOP proposal, which will be announced on Monday, will reach about $ 600 billion.
While welcoming the GOP’s willingness to negotiate, Brian Deese, director of the National Economic Council, told CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday that the $ 1.9 billion sum was “calibrated to the economic crisis we are facing. “
“What we really need to focus on now is: What do we need to get this economy back on track and what are the resources needed to do that?” he said.
The Republican proposal came a few days ahead of planned Democratic votes designed to prevent a GOP filibuster and allow Congress to pass the Biden plan by a majority vote.
“The question is not twofold,” Senate Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders IV told ABC this week.
“The question is to address the unprecedented crisis we are currently facing. If Republicans want to work with us, they have better ideas on how to address the crises, that’s great. “To be honest with you, I have not heard it yet,” Sanders said.
The proposed Republican compromise supports Biden’s proposals for more money for vaccine distribution and aid to small businesses, while $ 350 billion in state and local aid appears to be a top democratic priority.
Senate Republicans signed a letter to Biden asking to meet with him: Cassidy, Susan Collins of Maine, Mitt Romney of Utah, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, all of whom are with the Democratic Democrats. worked, including the NJ rep. Josh Gottheimer. , D-5th Dist., On a compromise on coronavirus spending in December, which included $ 600 direct payments.
Their efforts began with negotiations that led to Congress approving a $ 900 billion stimulus package in the waning days of the 116th Congress.
“The president’s team did not reach anyone in our group, Democrats or Republicans, when they drafted their proposal,” Cassidy told Fox. ‘If you want unity, and if you want to be dual, you need to start with a group that shows that it is willing to work together for a common solution. They have not. “
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One compromise area could be the next round of stimulation control. Cassidy said Republicans have proposed $ 1,000 payments targeted at lower-income households, rather than the $ 1,400 according to the current formula that will send checks to some families earning more than $ 400,000.
“The live checks are designed to get money in the pockets of families who really need them,” Deese said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “We are certainly open to making elements of this package more effective in achieving the goal.”
Another senator who signed the letter, Rob Portman of Ohio, objected to the Democrats’ efforts in both houses of Congress to pass a budget resolution that would enable them to avoid a Senate filibuster and the COVID-19 package with majority vote to pass under a process known. as reconciliation.
“What the Democrats are talking about is using one straight without coming up with a two-party compromise,” he told CNN.
But Portman voted in favor of two budget resolutions in 2017 that prevented Democrats from senating their efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act (which failed by one vote), enabling them to pass their tax bill that limiting the federal deduction for state and local taxes. .
Democrats also learned a lesson from President Barack Obama’s government when Biden was vice president. Too small a stimulus package, with the costs forced to attract Republican support, is blamed for a lower recovery after the Great Recession.
Then the Democrats spent months in a futile attempt to win GOP support for Obama’s health care law, and even passed several amendments proposed by the Republican Republicans.
Jonathan D. Salant can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant.
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