White House calls on senators to lift dual support for Covid-19 aid package

White House calls on senators to lift dual support for Covid-19 aid package

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According to the person, who said members want more details and evidence on where the money is most needed, the meeting will take place on Sunday, which came when the White House campaigned for dual support for the $ 1.9 billion proposal. The person said that there is a desire to ensure that stimulus research is targeted at those who need it most.

Biden created the U.S. bailout plan and considered the proposal a top legislative priority in the early days of his term. Brian Deese, the director of the White House’s National Economic Council, presented the call with as many as 16 senators – eight Democrats and eight Republicans were invited.

The White House still wants to pursue the $ 1.9 billion package as one big package, rather than splitting it up, the person added to the call. This means that the Democrats can finally decide to use the budget reconciliation process where they can advance legislation with 51 Senate votes, as such a measure cannot be filtered.

A separate source told CNN that the call was a “wonderful” first meeting and that this two-person group will continue to work together and discuss a way forward over another emergency relief package. According to the source, everyone agrees that the greatest need is fast to produce a vaccine across the country and distribute it efficiently.

The source also said the call lasts about an hour and 15 minutes, with Covid-19 White House response coordinator Jeff Zients and legislative director Louisa Terrell.

“President Biden and his advisers will continue to engage and consult groups of two-party legislators, to raise the issue of why urgent action is needed to bring relief to communities and families who are hard hit, and more resources for public health officials so that we can ramp up vaccinations, ”one White House official told CNN.

–CNN reported that Biden’s stimulus proposal already faces Republican objections, and that the Senate Democrats have laid the groundwork to use a rare procedural tactic, known as reconciliation, to pass most of the package if Republicans stop their efforts.

Earlier Sunday, on whether the president would seek a two-way deal to accept the package amid growing reports of Republican discomfort, White House chief of staff Ron Klain said the government wanted the proposal passed quickly, but that both parties are not involved. the “enemy” of speed.

“We reach out to people,” Klain said. “I do not think duality and speed are each other’s enemies. The need is urgent.”

Deese told reporters on Friday that the goal was to ‘comply with members of Congress’ parties to address the rescue plan and enter into dialogue with them (and) understand their concerns’, a mandate from Biden.

Among the Republican senators invited to join the call is Mitt Romney of Utah, who told CNN’s Dana Bash earlier on Sunday about ‘State of the Union’ that although he ‘wants’ to hear what the White House has to say. said ‘, about his proposal. about the prospect of the US borrowing more money “for things that may not be absolutely necessary.”
The White House wants Democrats to be patient about stimulus talks, as Biden is pushing for a dual path, officials say

But the senator noted that “Republicans like me have shown that we are open to compromise” and have shown “the ability to compromise.”

Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent who joins the Democrats, later responded to the same comment on the senator’s comment in Utah: “Well, I do not know what the word compromise means. I know working families are alive. “Today in more economic desperation than since the Great Depression. And if Republicans are willing to join us in addressing the crisis, welcome. Let’s do it.”

But Democrats, he said, can not “wait weeks and weeks and months and months to move on.” Sanders was not among the senators invited to the White House invitation, according to CNN’s version.

Sanders, the incoming chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, expressed the Democrats’ support by using reconciliation to implement large parts of the aid package when Republicans stand in the way.

“We are going to use reconciliation (that is 50 votes in the Senate, plus the Vice President) to pass legislation that needs working families in this country right now,” he said, shaking off the possibility that Republicans would not support them. . the package.

CNN’s Lauren Fox, Phil Mattingly and Manu Raju contributed to this report.

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