10 GOP senators ask Biden to back a new, smaller bill for coronavirus relief

A group of 10 Republican senators sent a letter to President Joe Biden on Sunday proposing a smaller coronavirus relief package than his $ 1.9 trillion plan, asking him to negotiate with them to find a compromise on the matter of new Covid-19 stimulus efforts.

The number of signatories is significant, as any bill passed under normal Senate rules requires at least 10 GOP supporters to be successful. In effect, the letter is an offer to work with Democrats to implement new stimulus measures – under certain conditions.

In the letter, Republican lawmakers – a group including Sens. Mitt Romney from Utah, Susan Collins from Maine and Lisa Murkowski from Alaska, as well as other relative moderates – their proposal, which they pledged to publish in full on Monday. , would be able to gain bipartisan support as it reflects Biden’s call for $ 160 billion for coronavirus testing, detection, treatment and protective supplies.

Lawmakers also said their bill will include funding for direct payments to “families most in need of help,” a reference to some lawmakers’ desire to investigate direct payments; help to small businesses and childcare; and $ 4 billion for mental health and substance use.

They did not provide details, but the Washington Post reports that the GOP proposal would cut the cost of new stimulus measures by $ 1.3 trillion to about $ 600 billion, and that it would do so by making major cuts to some Democratic priorities.

For example, Democrats have pushed for another round of $ 1,400 direct payments to single people making $ 75,000 or less per year, and couples making $ 150,000 or less. As Senator Bernie Sanders pointed out on ABCs This week On Sunday, Democrats promised there would be another round of direct payments of at least $ 1,400 if they won both Senate seats in Georgia’s second races in January – and they did.

“You can’t campaign on a range of issues, and then, after the election, when you get power, say, ‘Oh, well, you know what, we’re changing our mind,’ Sanders said.

However, accepting the new Republican proposal would force Democrats to do just that – it would cut direct payments to $ 1,000 per person, the Post reports.

And those payments would likely be sent to a much smaller group of people under the new Republican plan. Ohio Senator Rob Portman, one of the letter’s signers, said on CNNs State of the Union On Sunday, those direct payments should be limited to individuals making $ 50,000 or families making $ 100,000. “Let’s focus on those who are struggling,” said Portman.

Portman also said the Democratic proposal to extend federal unemployment insurance – currently estimated at $ 300 a week – until September was premature, and that program should be better targeted as well.

Democrats have proposed not only expanding but expanding that program by increasing weekly payments to $ 400. The Post reports that the GOP plan aims to keep the weekly stipend at $ 300 and the program, which is currently due in March expires, can be extended until June.

The GOP plan also reportedly scraps the Democratic proposal to raise the federal minimum wage to $ 15 an hour, and would likely reduce the amount of aid available to state and local governments.

The GOP signatories argue in their letter – and in television appearances on Sunday – that their proposal will give Biden a chance to live up to his pledge for “unity,” a theme of his inaugural address.

“In the spirit of duality and unity, we have developed a COVID-19 emergency response framework that builds on previous COVID assistance laws, all passed with bipartisan support,” the letter reads. “We request that you have the opportunity to meet with you to discuss our proposal in more detail and how we can work together to address the needs of the American people during this ongoing pandemic.”

And they argue that the Democrats’ current plans to push their preferred proposal through Congress through a process known as reconciliation, which would allow legislation pertaining to budgetary matters to be passed in the Senate by a simple majority (majority vote). which the Democrats now have because of their victories in Georgia) would – in Portman’s words – “poison the well” for any future bipartisan legislative effort.

State of the Union host Dana Bash asked Portman why he had in the past supported Republicans who used reconciliation to advance controversial legislation, noting that it had been used in both the Republican effort to overturn the Affordable Care Act and to put Trump’s tax cuts into law. to put. Portman replied that “reconciliation is not for the purposes they are trying to use it for,” arguing that the Democrats should not use reconciliation as a first resort.

However, Democrats have long been hindered in their efforts to push through a sweeping stimulus package, agreeing to a compromise bill in late 2020 after months of Republican refusals to consider a $ 3 trillion bill passed by the House in May 2020. has been adopted.

Senate leader Chuck Schumer has said he is willing “to work with our Republican colleagues to advance coronavirus relief,” but that Democrats are “keeping all our options open, on the table, including budget reconciliation.”

What reception Biden’s new GOP proposal will receive remains to be seen. Appear on State of the Union On Sunday, National Economic Council Director Brian Deese told Bash, “We welcome input to say where we may not have gotten everything right,” but argued, “The cost of doing too little right now is far greater than the cost of doing too much. “

Urgent need to adopt new aid package as federal coronavirus programs are about to expire

As many federal coronavirus programs will expire in the coming months, there is an urgent need to work on the next round of stimulus. As Vox’s Emily Stewart has reported, delays in passing the final round led to coverage shortages for many unemployed people.

On Friday, Biden stressed the importance of passing a coronavirus incentive bill, saying, “I support passing Covid aid with Republican support if we can get it, but Covid aid must pass. There are no ifs, and or buts. “

Given the Democratic majority in the House, and the fact that legislation in that chamber can be passed by simple majority, the Senate will have the difficulty in delivering aid quickly. There, the Democrats have had to deal with finding 10 Republicans to support their proposal, compromise with moderate Republicans on a plan like that of the 10 GOP Senators on Sunday, or pass legislation through reconciliation.

For any of these routes in the Senate to work, Democrats would have to be a united front. As it stands now, they have the smallest possible majority in the evenly divided senate, with Vice President Kamala Harris acting as a tie-breaker.

And a united front doesn’t go without saying, as there are some right-wing Democrats in the Senate who have not fully embraced all of the proposals in Biden’s plan, something ABC Sanders’s Martha Raddatz asked about on Sunday.

In particular, she asked Sanders about Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who said bipartisan legislation is important to him and has not offered full support with a $ 15 minimum wage. He also did not say whether he would agree with the Democrats if they choose to pursue reconciliation. Sanders expressed confidence that “all Democrats understand the need to continue” with coronavirus relief.

“The question is not two-fold, the question is how these crises can be addressed now,” said Sanders. “If Republicans want to work with us, they have better ideas of how to handle those crises, that’s great. But to be fair, I haven’t heard that yet. “

Sanders added that there would be other opportunities for duality in the future, especially around issues like prescription drug reform and infrastructure. “But right now, this country is facing an unprecedented series of crises,” he said.

One of the signers of the GOP letter, Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy, on Sunday, suggested that Republicans had not been given enough opportunity to work on a two-pronged deal.

“If you want unity, you want to be bipartisan, then you should start with the group that’s willing to work together,” Cassidy said. Fox News Sunday.

As Republicans have pointed out, Biden has expressed a desire to work with Republicans on legislation. But as Vox’s Ella Nilsen has written, Biden’s ambitions to work down the aisle and pass his aid package may be at odds with one another – especially given the more limited scale of relief the 10 GOP senators are now proposing.

And Democrats seem to believe that if they can only fulfill one of the president’s ambitions, the priority is finalizing the package. As Nilsen writes:

While Republicans in the bipartisan group are the ones calling for cuts to Biden’s Covid-19 bill, the Democratic senators in the centrist group weren’t all that eager to cut back. Democrats recall that Senate Republicans used the budget reconciliation mechanism to approve their massive tax cut in 2017, and some in the Democratic caucus believe they should treat their priorities the same way now that they have the majority.

Sanders, the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee and John Yarmuth, the chairman of the House Budget Committee, have each told reporters that their committees are in the process of drafting budget reconciliation resolutions for the Covid-19 bill, which would be due in a few days. can be hired as Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi gave them the green light.

Those reconciliation resolutions are already expected this week. Republicans can also sign up with them if they wish.