[ad_1]
In short, there is a lot of uncertainty in the House and the Senate must ultimately resolve any disputes and agree on any amendments before the measure is sent to Biden’s office.
“We are working as quickly and as quickly as possible,” said House Budget Speaker John Yarmuth (D-Ky.). “We will send it to the Senate and see what happens.”
The budget committee will kick off Monday’s markup with a vote to send the package to the House, followed by several hours of overtime during which lawmakers can come up with largely token motions, voice their grievances or express support for Biden’s plan.
No substantial modification of the text is expected as the members of the Budget panel cannot propose regular amendments. The expert group meeting to put together Biden’s plan comes after nine House committees marked their own portions of the massive measure.
Republicans are almost certain to complain about the proposal to raise the hourly minimum wage to $ 15 and $ 350 billion for state and local aid, among other parts of the package. GOP House leaders circulated a whip notice on Friday urging their members to vote against the bill, arguing that it provides “a bailout” for the blue states and pays “the people to do not work”.
“We’re definitely going to expose why this plan is wrong, at the wrong time for all the wrong reasons,” said Republican Jason Smith (R-Mo.), The Republican-ranked Republican on the House budget committee, who predicted The sign marking can take up to six hours. “We are going to highlight all the different elements of this legislation that are bad for the working class.”
In the Senate, committees have started meeting with an official adviser known as the parliamentarian, who will decide whether certain elements of Biden’s plan go against Byrd’s so-called rule. This rule requires that policies adopted as part of the budget reconciliation process have a significant effect on federal government spending, revenue, and debt and bar policies that would lead to an increase in debt beyond the next. decade.
One of the biggest open questions is whether Biden’s push to raise the federal minimum wage for the first time since 2009 – a proposal championed by progressives – will survive the budget cuts.
Democratic leaders and the White House have said they will make a final decision on how to proceed after the Senate MP votes on the proposal. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been quiet, even with high-level members of her leadership team, on the state of discussions on the most controversial issues.
But Biden has privately signaled to governors that the wage hike is unlikely to happen as part of his first Covid aid measure. Progressives, like Senate Budget Chairman Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Have insisted the provision will survive, citing recent analysis from the Congressional Budget Office as evidence.
Democrats could move forward on quashing the parliamentarian if the minimum wage hike is not accepted, but Biden is leaning strongly against the idea, POLITICO reported earlier this month.
Yet raising wages remains a major progressive demand, and Liberal leaders insist the pandemic relief program is the most viable legislative vehicle this year to achieve it.
“It’s really important to us that this happens in this package because we believe it is directly related to the relief of Covid,” said Representative Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), Chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. “Given the makeup of the Senate, this is our best opportunity and the right time in the midst of this pandemic.
Parliamentarian aside, however, the strategy met with resistance from moderates in the Senate, Senators Joe Manchin (DW.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) Declaring themselves opposed to the inclusion of the wage hike in Biden’s final. package.
Senate Republicans, meanwhile, criticized Democrats for continuing a process that excludes their contribution after Congress passed five coronavirus relief bills last year, totaling nearly $ 4 trillion, with bipartisan support.
In a letter sent earlier this month to Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (DN.Y.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Rank-and-file Republicans on various Senate committees demanded that the rescue program goes through their panels before reaching the ground. But Democrats are not expected to comply with this demand.
Schumer said in a letter on Friday that the House and Senate committees were coordinating so that lawmakers could quickly transfer the package to Biden’s office before unemployment benefits expired on March 14.
“If Republicans are prepared to work with Democrats on constructive amendments that will improve the bill, we are ready to work,” Schumer wrote. “However, we must not allow Republican obstructionism to deter us from our mission to provide aid to Americans who desperately need it.”
Even if Congress passes the package before unemployment benefits expire on March 14, relief will not be immediate. Administrative and bureaucratic problems will delay delivery of key pieces of aid for weeks, if not months.
At the state level, officials say it can’t happen soon enough.
“We need help to help our citizens get vaccinated,” Iowa state treasurer Michael Fitzgerald said on Thursday in an appeal organized by advocacy group Invest in America Action.
“We are 46th in the country when it comes to helping people get vaccinated. There is no excuse for this, ”Fitzgerald said. “We need help. We need help now.”
Heather Caygle and Marianne LeVine contributed to this report.
[ad_2]
Source link