Democrat congressional leaders took the first step toward passing President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion so-called coronavirus relief bill with or without Republican support, submitting a joint budget resolution Monday that would allow them to use the arcane reconciliation procedure and negate any possible filibuster.
While White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Thursday the administration wanted the measure to be bipartisan, Monday's action indicated they did not think it was necessary.
"Congress must pursue a bold and robust course of action," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said on the chamber floor. "It makes no sense to pinch pennies when so many Americans are struggling."
Republicans have decried the bill as a "wish list," particularly the hundreds of billions in aid for states controlled by Democrats, whose restrictive emergency declarations ostensibly to mitigate the spread of the novel coronavirus has devastated their tax revenue. Although no bill has been put forth, Biden has indicated he would want a $15-an-hour minimum wage as part of the measure.
The reconciliation process, enacted in 1974, has been used only 25 times, and was most notoriously employed to pass the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, without a single Republican vote in either chamber.
The resolution comes as 10 Senate Republicans met with Biden on a $618 billion counter-proposal late Monday. It does not contain the hundreds of billions for the state and local governments, and it also has a lower unemployment benefit and direct cash payments.
Schumer's comments however made the meeting seemed fruitless before it started.
"The only thing we cannot accept is a package that is too small or too narrow to pull our country out of this emergency," he said. "We cannot repeat the mistake of 2009, and we must act very soon to get this assistance to those so desperately in need."