Topline
The Senate on Tuesday afternoon voted 50-49 to begin debate on a budget resolution for the 2021 fiscal year that will allow Democrats to pass much of President Biden’s $1.9 trillion without any Republican votes.
U.S. President Joe Biden meets with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen in the Oval Office of the White … [+] House on January 29, 2021 in Washington, DC.
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Key Facts
During a press briefing Tuesday afternoon, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Biden is “totally on board” with using the reconciliation process to pass the bill, even amid protests from Republicans that doing so would undermine Biden’s campaign promise of unity.
The White House has repeatedly emphasized that passing the stimulus package via reconciliation does not rule out Republican support for the legislation.
Biden and congressional Democrats have repeatedly said they’re open to working with Republicans on the package, but not at the expense of delivering relief to American families quickly.
The vote to move forward followed a Monday evening meeting between Biden and a group of ten Senate Republicans who had crafted a pared-back $618 billion package as an alternative, but the White House reiterated Tuesday that Biden still believes a $1.9 trillion package is appropriate.
Schumer said Tuesday that Biden informed the group of ten GOP senators that their offering was much too narrow, adding that “I think it is his belief…that if we did a package that small, we’d be mired in the covid crisis for years.”
During a caucus call with Democrats on Tuesday, Biden and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen reportedly encouraged Democrats to pursue a large, aggressive relief package and warned against the GOP’s strong push for more targeted aid measures.
Crucial Quote
“We cannot afford to dither, delay, or dilute,” Schumer said on the Senate floor ahead of the vote. “We need a big, bold package along the lines of what President Biden has proposed…We hope that our republican colleagues will join us in offering amendments.” Schumer added: “We want it to be a bipartisan proposal, but we also know that we must move forward.”
Surprising Fact
The reconciliation process only requires a simple majority of votes instead of the usual 60 votes required to overcome a filibuster, meaning that Democrats were able to move the bill forward even with their slim majority in the Senate.
Tangent
Despite his past reservations about the scope of Biden’s plan, Senator Joe Machin (D-W.Va.) announced Tuesday his intention to vote to move the budget resolution forward, but with the caveat that he would “only support proposals that will get us through and end the pain of this pandemic.”
What To Watch For
The vote to open debate on the budget resolution will set the stage for a barrage of amendments to the legislation later this week thanks to a process called a “vote-a-rama.”
