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The 75-minute call, set up by Sen. Joe Manchin (DW.Va.), is one of the first big calls the Biden administration has made as he works to build Cross-party support for the $ 1.9 trillion plan. Senators asked for more data on how the White House implemented its plan.
Senators have told White House officials they support the additional spending on vaccine distribution, but some have hesitated over the stimulus payments, urging the White House to target them, sources say over the phone. Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) pressed Biden officials on why families earning $ 300,000 would be eligible and urged focusing on working poor.
“I was the first to raise this issue, but there seems to be a lot of agreement… that these payments need to be more targeted,” Collins said in an interview. “I would say I don’t know how the administration came up with the $ 1.9 trillion figure for the package.”
Collins said this number was a “concern” for her and that her bipartisan team, led by Collins and Manchin, needed to meet again to figure out how to respond to a proposal Republican senators say they cannot pass the Senate. . This group played a key role in passing a $ 900 billion package in December, which many Republicans say makes it difficult to pass an immediate large package. This package included $ 600 in direct payments to many Americans.
“I’m going to suggest that we get together and talk about what we think is a reasonable package, and one that could garner bipartisan support,” Collins said. “The administration is obviously very keen to act very quickly. And we want to make sure there is a rationale, especially since there is so much money left over from previous packages. “
Senator Angus King (I-Maine) also questioned the price tag: “It’s not monopoly money,” as he put it.
“There is a fundamental decision here on the part of the administration and do they want to work on negotiating a bipartite proposal or do they want to try to move the larger package forward through reconciliation,” said King said of partisan legislative tactics. “It wasn’t explicitly addressed today, but it’s kind of in the background.”
But King added that Biden officials on the call were open to input from Senators and that the top line number was specifically discussed on the call. “If they just wanted to muddle that up, they wouldn’t have interrupted the Packers game,” he joked, adding that the White House and Senators were eager to strike a deal.
Senator Jeanne Shaheen (DN.H.) hailed the new White House for setting up an appeal so quickly with the bipartisan group, a departure from the previous administration. She said senators asked for more data on the status of the state and local government funding relief to get “a better idea” of the administration’s “priorities” and how they developed the plan.
“It was a general question that was expressed around a number of things: the more assistance can be targeted to where it is most needed, the more useful it is,” Shaheen said.
Senators agreed, however, that vaccine distribution should be prioritized over provisions like the $ 15 minimum wage, which can only garner the support of 10 Republicans. For now, the Biden administration is pursuing a bill by regular order rather than budget reconciliation, which can be used to evade a filibuster. But even some Democrats have indicated they weren’t sold on the Biden package.
Representatives Josh Gottheimer (DN.J.) and Tom Reed (RN.Y.), Co-Chairs of the House Problem Solvers Caucus, also joined the call.
The White House has called for urgent congressional action to send more money to hard-hit communities and more resources to help speed up vaccinations as the death toll surpassed 400,000 earlier this month. Biden has promised to pass 100 million vaccines to Americans in the first 100 days.
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