Biden to end executive actions next week to focus on Covid relief

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WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden plans to end his initial wave of executive actions by the middle of next week and focus on passing key parts of his legislative agenda, with the agenda $ 1.9 trillion relief effort against coronaviruses as a top priority, according to three administration officials.

Biden has quietly reached out to Republicans about the relief bill, which he wants to pass with bipartisan support, and may soon start holding in-person meetings at the White House, according to an official. At the same time, the president chose his words carefully when weighing in on the upcoming impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump.

Biden has said a Senate trial is due to take place, but has refrained from disclosing his views on whether Trump should be sentenced, despite willingness to strongly criticize his predecessor without hesitation in the past.

Explaining Biden’s reluctance to voice his opinion on how he thinks the Senate should vote, an administration official said: “What he’s trying to do is pass a law.

Officials said their concern was that full support for impeachment would poison Biden’s hopes of bipartisanship by making it harder for some Republicans to vote for anything he proposes.

Biden also keeps his cards handy when it comes to discussing his Republicans outreach. Officials said Biden was organizing calls with Republicans, but he didn’t want the White House to disclose them for fear it would be counterproductive to push through coronavirus legislation. The president is assessing the position of various Republicans on the relief bill and a possible subsequent bill, an official said. Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine and Rob Portman of Ohio said they spoke with Biden this week, NBC reported Thursday.

Biden on Friday stressed the importance of the relief bill to reporters from the Oval Office, where he was meeting with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Vice President Kamala Harris.

“The idea here is that we have to act now,” Biden said. “We have learned from past crises, risk does not do too much, risk does not do enough,” he added.

Yellen said that “the bailout will help millions of people get to the other side of this pandemic. It will also make smart investments to get our economy back on track.”

Some administration officials privately admit that it is increasingly likely that Democrats in Congress will have to use the budget reconciliation process to pass the relief bill. Publicly, the White House is laying the groundwork to ultimately support the process, which would allow Democrats to move forward without Republicans, attempting to rebrand the relief bill as a non-partisan issue.

“Republicans can still vote for a package even if it goes through reconciliation,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Thursday, reiterating that Biden wants GOP support for the bill.

Democrats have indicated they are prepared to use reconciliation if Republican support is insufficient. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Who is in close contact with the White House, said Thursday that a budget resolution that would be the way to get the coronavirus bill through reconciliation would be presented to the House next week. “I hope we don’t need it, but if necessary we have it,” Pelosi said.

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Biden also plans to push his immigration bill forward in the coming weeks, and contrary to the White House’s insistence that coronavirus legislation cannot be passed in pieces, parts of the Immigration bill could be moved separately, an official said.

Meanwhile, the White House is expected to issue a series of immigration decrees next week, including the long-awaited announcement of a task force to reunite migrant families separated under the Trump administration.

Psaki confirmed to MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow on Thursday that Biden’s candidate for homeland security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas will lead the task force. The Senate is expected to confirm Mayorkas on Monday.

In other news from the administration:

Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will receive an economic briefing with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Friday morning.
The president will travel to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., In the afternoon to visit injured service members.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken has chosen Rob Malley as US special envoy to Iran, the State Department confirmed Thursday. Malley, the chairman of the International Crisis Group, a conflict resolution organization, was the White House coordinator for the Middle East, North Africa and the Gulf region under the Obama administration, where he served helped negotiate the 2015 Iran nuclear deal from which Trump withdrew. in 2018.