President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are directly involved in building support for a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 recovery bill, according to White House press secretary Jen Psaki.
They face a race against time to steer the ambitious funding plan through Congress before a mid-March cutoff for another round of financial assistance amid opposition from Republicans, who have balked at the high cost, and some Democrats, who believe benefits should be better targeted.
In her daily briefing, Psaki said Biden and Harris had begun talking to members of Congress.
“The president and vice president are engaged directly with members and have had a number of productive conversations that will continue through the course of the week and will only pick up in the days ahead,” she said.
Their intervention underscores the rescue plan’s high priority for the new administration — and a realization that it already faces a tough fight through Congress.
The pandemic has killed more than 420,000 people in the United States and left millions more out of work.
Psaki added that chief of staff Ron Klain and senior adviser Anita Dunn had also held conversations with members as part of White House efforts to steer the legislation into law.
Counselor to the President Steve Ricchetti and Office of Legislative Affairs Director Louisa Terrell are “quarterbacking the team’s broader legislative outreach.”
Psaki said the president would meet newly confirmed Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and other members of his economic team to assess the plan’s effects and the potential cost of delaying releasing funds.
The White House has already warned the country faces an “unemployment insurance cliff” in March if a bill is not passed to replace funding for supplementary payments, which is due to end then.
Biden’s plan includes proposals for additional direct checks of $1,400 and a higher federal minimum wage of $15 per hour.
Senate Democrats have already said they will push ahead on the plan without Republican support if necessary.
“We want to work with our Republican colleagues to advance this legislation in a bipartisan way,” Chuck Schumer, the Senate majority leader, said on the Senate floor. “But the work must move forward, preferably with our Republican colleagues, but without them, if we must.”
