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WASHINGTON (AP) – Key aides to President Joe Biden on Sunday began talks with a group of moderate Senate Republicans and Democrats over a $ 1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package as Biden faces winds growing opposites in his efforts to gain bipartisan support for his presidency’s initial legislative effort.
Lawmakers on the right question the wisdom of racking up larger deficits while those on the left urge Biden not to spend too much time on bipartisanship as the pandemic kills thousands of Americans every day and costs more jobs due to tighter restrictions in many communities.
At least a dozen senators met for an hour and 15 minutes on a virtual call with White House National Economic Council Director Brian Deese and other senior White House officials. Many are hoping to approve a relief package before the trial of former President Donald Trump, which is expected to begin in two weeks, passes Washington’s attention.
Senator Angus King, independent from Maine, called the opening talks a “serious effort.”
“There was no hint of cynicism or lack of commitment in at least trying to find something,” King said. “If they were just trying to muddle it up, I don’t think it would have interrupted the Packers game.”
King told reporters there was “absolute consensus” among the group that the No.1 priority was to speed up vaccine distribution and expand testing and testing for COVID-19.
The White House has not appeared to move to break the package or lower the overall price, even as it pushes for bipartisan support. There was also no discussion of pushing it through a procedural move that could be done without Republicans, King said.
A key Republican, Senator Susan Collins of Maine, said afterwards: “It seems premature to consider a set of this size and scope.
Collins said instead that she would bring the bipartisan group together “and see if we can come up with a more targeted package.” She said in a statement that a bill with additional funding for vaccine distribution “would help.”
Senators from both sides have raised questions about the economic aid provisions, particularly making direct payments of $ 1,400 to Americans more suited to recipients on a needs basis.
Senators also wanted more data on how the White House reached the $ 1.9 trillion figure.
Many senators belong to a bipartisan group that marked the contours of the last COVID-19 deal approved late last year. They were joined on the call by the two leaders of the House Problem Solver Caucus, Reps Josh Gottheimer, DN.J., and Tom Reed, RN.Y., who were also part of the previous discussions.
Senator Jeanne Shaheen, DN.H., told The Associated Press that no red line has been drawn. But she added that there was a consensus among those calling “that the more targeted aid, the more effective it can be.”
Overall, “it was a conversation and it wasn’t about drawing lines in the sand,” Shaheen said. “It was about how can we work together to help the people of this country.”
White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Jeff Zients and White House Director of Legislative Affairs Louisa Terrell also joined the call.
Out of the gate, Biden made it clear that moving swiftly through another round of coronavirus relief was a top priority as he sought to bring the growing pandemic and related economic crisis under control, while demonstrating that he could break through the deadlock that plagued Congress for many. of the last two presidencies.
Biden and colleagues in their public comments stressed that his plan is a starting point and that finding common ground on relief should be achievable given the devastating impact of the pandemic on Democratic and Republican states. With more than 412,000 dead and the economy losing jobs again, Biden argued there was no time to waste.
“We will continue to push because we cannot wait,” said Karine Jean-Pierre, deputy senior press secretary at the White House. “It is not because Washington has already been stuck in an impasse that it should continue to be
At the heart of Biden’s campaign speech, beyond healing the wounds created by Trump’s presidency, he was a proven bipartisan negotiator, who would draw on his decades in the Senate and deep connections with Republicans to bridge the gaps. partisan divisions.
Some Biden advisers have observed with concern that the Senate, just days after the president’s tenure began, was already deadlocked on a power-sharing deal, with Republican leader Mitch McConnell refusing to budge on a demand to keep the obstruction intact. If the Senate twisted into knots on its very foundations, some Democrats wondered, how could it achieve a big problem?
Additionally, some of Biden’s favorite methods of lobbying and chatting have been curtailed by the pandemic. While his address book remains one of the best in Washington, it will be much more difficult for Biden – at least for the foreseeable future – to engage in the face-to-face politics he prefers.
Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, ahead of the meeting, again voiced concerns about the government’s wisdom in committing to massive deficit spending.
“If we get past COVID, I believe the economy is going to come back in force,” Romney told Fox News Sunday. “And spending and borrowing trillions of dollars from the Chinese, among other things, is not necessarily the best thing we can do to keep our economy strong in the long run.
Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent from Caucasian-Caucasian Democrats, said he had no high hopes for negotiations leading to Republican support and suggested Democrats might need to use budget reconciliation to l ‘adopt by simple majority. The procedural tool would allow Democrats to push the package to approval without the 60-vote threshold typically required to push legislation past a filibuster. Republicans used the same tool to pass tax cuts under the Trump administration.
“What we can’t do is wait weeks and weeks and months and months to move forward,” Sanders said. “We must act now. This is what the Americans want. “
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Jonathan Lemire, Associated Press editor, contributed to this report.
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