President-elect Joe Biden's coronavirus stimulus plan faces challenges in Congress, including getting support from Republicans.
Democrats' number in the House remains slim, and they need Republican support to pass a bill.
Biden’s party is expected to control the Senate later this month but will require 10 GOP votes to pass legislation unless it chooses a method that requires only a majority vote. The chamber must also spend its limited time on the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump following the riots at the US Capitol.
Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia is not confident about increasing the recently approved $600 direct payments to $2,000 due to the cost. However, Republican Sens. Josh Hawley of Missouri and Marco Rubio of Florida have supported the proposal.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and many in his party do not support state and local government relief, but Senate Republicans have joined Democrats in pushing the aid.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., lauded Biden’s coronavirus stimulus plan after its release. The two said they will “get right to work to turn President-elect Biden’s vision into legislation that will pass both chambers and be signed into law.”
“After Congress passed the most recent emergency COVID-relief bill in December, Democrats were clear that much more needed to be done,” they said. “We are pleased the Biden-Harris package includes much of what congressional Democrats have been fighting for, including an increase in direct payments to $2,000 for American families, support for vaccine distribution and testing, additional aid to small businesses, funding to safeguard state and local jobs, extension of unemployment benefits, help for renters and children in poor and middle-class families, and more.”
Pelosi and Schumer stressed that they “hope that our Republican colleagues will work with us to quickly enact it.”
Biden’s Covid plan features several familiar stimulus measures, with the additional fiscal support designed to help families and businesses until the coronavirus vaccine is widely available.
The plan calls for direct payments of $1,400 to most Americans, increased per-week unemployment benefit to $400, $15 per hour minimum wage, and extension of eviction and foreclosure moratoriums.
The Covid stimulus package also includes $350 billion in state and local government aid; $170 billion for K-12 schools and institutions of higher education; $50 billion toward Covid-19 testing; $20 billion toward a national vaccine program in partnership with states, localities, and tribes; making the Child Tax Credit refundable for the year; and increasing the credit to $3,000 per child ($3,600 for a child under age 6).
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., expressed his support for Biden’s spending plans.
“All across our nation, people are looking for answers and demanding accountability, but they are also desperate for hope: hope that political leaders in Washington can begin taking steps to heal our deeply divided nation,” Rubio wrote in a letter to Biden dated Tuesday.
“It would send a powerful message to the American people if, on the first day of your presidency, you called on the House and Senate to send you legislation to increase the direct economic impact payments to Americans struggling due to the pandemic from $600 to $2,000,” he added.
