Democrats are on track to pass President Joe Biden’s coronavirus relief plan in the House by late Friday night or early Saturday morning, a major milestone on the way to hitting their mid-March target for turning the $1.9 trillion package into law — and fulfilling the White House’s first major legislative priority.
Nearly every Democrat is expected to back the measure, with Republican lawmakers taking the calculated political risk of opposing additional relief. But the Democratic Party will face a more serious struggle next week, when the package will arrive across the Capitol and require every Senate Democrat to fall in line on the behemoth bill — all before a critical deadline in about two weeks.
Biden’s relief plan was dealt a setback this week, as Democrats learned their push to include a long-sought minimum wage increase ran afoul of the Senate’s arcane budget rules, infuriating the party’s left wing just 24 hours before the House vote.
Some Democrats privately acknowledge that stripping out the $15-an-hour wage mandate is likely to ease passage in the Senate. But it is also sure to complicate the math for Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her leadership team — who can only afford to lose a handful of votes on the floor — when the final bill comes back to the House in two weeks.
For now though, the House package still includes that federal minimum wage hike to $15-an-hour, assuring minimal drama in the lower chamber and forcing Senate Republicans to formally nix it next week.
“This is a spectacular piece of legislation. While the Senate has prevented us from temporarily passing one aspect of it, let us not be distracted from what is in here,” Pelosi told reporters Friday ahead of the bill’s passage.
The Covid aid bill would send $1,400 stimulus checks to millions of Americans, boost unemployment payments and increase the Child Tax Credit, as well as provide billions of dollars in aid to small businesses, states and efforts to test and vaccinate against the coronavirus.
Five weeks into Biden’s presidency, Democratic leaders remain dogged in their effort to fulfill his pricey ambitions to beat back the coronavirus and buttress the U.S. economy while more than 10 million Americans remain unemployed. Still, it could be at least another week or two before the new president’s legislative proposal clears Congress and lands on his desk. Democrats say Biden must sign the bill before March 14, a critical deadline for federal unemployment aid.
If passed, the package will be one of the largest ever approved by Congress and the fifth major piece of legislation approved during the pandemic. It is the work of nearly a dozen House committees, conducted at a breakneck, almost 24/7 pace over the last 28 days.
But Democrats say the backbone of the plan has been under discussion long before that — when congressional Republicans first refused to accept the Democrats’ relief plan of more than $3 trillion last summer.
“It is important for us to remember, this started almost a year ago,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told reporters Friday. “Today’s vote is a crucial step in our fight to defeat Covid-19.”
House Democratic leaders are confident they will clear the bill, though it could stretch late into the night — or possibly early Saturday morning, given a high number of Republicans who are seeking time to speak against the bill. Two or three Democrats are expected to oppose the measure, with zero Republicans expected to vote in favor.
Rep. Kurt Schrader (D-Ore.), who belongs to the centrist Blue Dog Coalition, said he was “leaning no,” citing new spending for programs he saw unrelated to the pandemic or unnecessary for higher-income families.
“The child care tax credits aren’t targeted to low-income [families]. People at $400,000 can get those,” Schrader said. “And minimum wage — I mean, c’mon, man. You want people to hire folks back, you don’t say you’re going to raise the minimum wage.”
Because the House did not strip out the minimum wage language, the package is guaranteed to ping-pong between the House and Senate at least three times, with a final vote in the House expected within two weeks.
Progressives on Friday continued to push for overruling the parliamentarian’s decision, though many privately acknowledge it is a longshot and senior Democrats say it is unlikely.
In the meantime, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is eying a potential workaround, such as adding language to the bill that would penalize large corporations that fail to pay workers at least $15 an hour, according to a senior Senate Democratic aide. Such a plan already has bipartisan backing from Budget Chair Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Finance Chair Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) — as well as an unlikely ally, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.).
Pressed on Friday, Pelosi wouldn’t reveal her preference for the party’s next step, declining to say whether Senate Democrats should overrule their chamber’s rules enforcer.
“This is a priority. We will get it done. And again, we will study what the opportunities are to do that,” Pelosi said, when asked about jamming the minimum wage into the bill. “If it doesn’t prevail because of Senate rules, we will persist.”
Jennifer Scholtes and Burgess Everett contributed to this report.