A bipartisan group of House and Senate lawmakers is waiting on the sidelines for a chance to play a key role in negotiating a coronavirus aid package.
President Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus aid proposal can’t pass the evenly divided Senate without changes, and the president is interested in finding a bipartisan deal before Democrats resort to a procedural tactic that would allow them to force it through without any GOP support.
“We take our responsibility seriously,” Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican, told reporters ahead of a meeting involving members of the bipartisan group.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers in both chambers are ready to help bridge the gap. The group was successful in 2020 in restarting stalled negotiations on a $900 billion coronavirus aid package and is ready to play a major role again.
“The idea that we don’t just have to wait for something to come down from on high but can actually negotiate among ourselves and bridge differences that others would prefer to be unbridgeable was very bracing,” Cassidy said. “It’s kind of what we’re here for, and I think our country benefited.”
On the Senate side, a group of 16 lawmakers from both parties is meeting to discuss a way to bridge the partisan divide on the next round of COVID-19 relief.
Republicans oppose both the high price tag and scope of the bill — they favor a more targeted measure aimed at vaccine production and distribution.
Democrats want a much bigger spending bill and hope to include a nationwide mandate to increase the minimum wage to $15.
Democratic leaders, meanwhile, are threatening to pass the legislation without the help of Democrats. They can do this in the Senate by circumventing the 60-vote filibuster threshold with a tactic called budget reconciliation.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, advised Democrats they may vote on a budget measure as soon as next week that would pave the way for passing “bold and robust” coronavirus relief and other bills under reconciliation, which requires only 51 votes instead of 60.
Schumer said he’s interested in a bipartisan coronavirus deal but won’t wait long.
“If our Republican colleagues decide to oppose the necessary, robust COVID relief, we will have to move forward without them,” Schumer said on the Senate floor Wednesday. “It is not our preference, but dealing with this crisis in a bold and sufficient way is a necessity.”
But Republicans said it won’t be that easy for Democrats to use the reconciliation route since the legislation would have to conform to strict rules and win agreement from liberals and centrists in their own party.
“It’s going to be very difficult to get a budget resolution,” Rep. Tom Reed, a New York Republican, said Wednesday.
Reed co-chairs the House Problem Solvers Caucus, a group of 58 lawmakers, equally divided between Republicans and Democrats.
Reed helped lead the effort to craft the $900 billion coronavirus aid deal and said he’s hoping the bipartisan group plays a role in a new deal, which he called “a Plan B” to Biden’s proposal and the unilateral reconciliation tactic.
Democrats will have difficulty using the reconciliation process to pass a new aid deal unilaterally because they’ll encounter friction within their own party, where colleagues such as Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders, a socialist, will clash with centrist Kyrsten Sinema, of Arizona, and others, Reed said.
“Reconciliation becomes an impossible tool to try to appease those different camps,” Reed said Wednesday.
Reed paired with the Senate bipartisan group in 2020 to produce the $900 billion measure that became the foundation of a final coronavirus relief bill former President Donald Trump signed into law.
The House and Senate groups remain in “tight coordination,” a House aide told the Washington Examiner. Both groups are in talks with Biden National Economic Council Director Brian Deese on the coronavirus aid deal in an effort to strike a bipartisan accord.
Reed on Wednesday told the Washington Examiner a bipartisan deal should include vaccine distribution money as a starting point because both parties agree on it. It should also include lawsuit liability protections for businesses and other entities trying to reopen or stay in business during the pandemic, Reed said.
Republicans want to avoid sending a new round of stimulus checks to higher-income individuals and families, a flaw overlooked in the last round of aid, Reed said, adding that stimulus checks should be far more targeted.
“I think as reconciliation becomes more realistically a more difficult path than I think Plan B becomes more of a lengthier conversation and allows for a healthier debate as to what they can actually put into it with bipartisan support,” Reed said.
Democrats might struggle to pass the coronavirus aid deal unilaterally, he said, adding that he hopes they will return to bipartisan talks.
“I tell the administration, and I’ve been trying to be a voice to say, ‘Look, that’s why you need to have a Plan A and a Plan B,’” Reed said. “We’ve been through this rodeo a few times. We want you to succeed. So, work with us because COVID-19 is something that should unite Republicans and Democrats, and we succeed together.”
