House Moderate Objects to Democrat-Only Bill: Stimulus Update

(Bloomberg) -- A moderate House Democrat said now is not the time to go ahead with a Covid-19 relief bill without Republican support, showcasing the party’s challenge in maintaining unity amid narrow legislative majorities.

President Joe Biden has so far failed to win Republican support for his overall $1.9 trillion stimulus proposal, spurring congressional Democratic leaders to prepare to move ahead just with their caucus. That involves a complicated legislative process known as reconciliation, which likely will take weeks to complete.

House Moderate Argues Against Reconciliation Route Now

Representative Jared Golden, a Democratic member of the centrist, bipartisan Problem Solvers group, argued against pursuing a Democrat-only stimulus bill.

Golden and fellow members of the 56-strong Problem Solvers spoke Tuesday with White House economic adviser Brian Deese on relief plans, and the Maine Democrat said he favored pursuing a bipartisan approach.

Golden’s stance is a warning to Democratic leaders about the potential challenge of holding the caucus together should they opt to forgo Republican support. The Senate is split 50-50, while Speaker Nancy Pelosi can only afford to lose four Democrats if all GOP members are opposed. -- Erik Wasson

Hoyer Warns of Weekend Work Before Mid-March Stimulus Deadline (7:56 a.m.)

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, said representatives will need to be prepared for weekend work to speed a Covid-19 aid package through the chamber.

“With expanded emergency unemployment insurance benefits scheduled to expire in March, the continued rise in COVID-19 cases and in job losses, and President Biden’s pledge to deploy 150 million vaccine doses in his first 100 days, we will need to move swiftly on additional Covid-19 relief legislation,” Hoyer wrote in a letter to colleagues late Tuesday.

House committees begin work this week, with the full chamber in session next week and potentially into the weekend, Hoyer said. Committees will be working the following two weeks, with the full House in session again the week of Feb. 22.

The House will now be in session in the first two weeks of March, ahead of the March 14 expiration of the expanded and extended unemployment benefits included in December’s $900 billion aid package.

House and Senate budget committees are preparing to move on fiscal 2021 budget resolutions, the first step toward a so-called reconciliation bill, which allows the Senate to proceed on a simple-majority vote basis -- avoiding the need for 60 votes to cut off the filibuster. It makes all the difference given the chamber’s partisan 50-50 split.

The catch, however, is that not all of Biden’s $1.9 trillion plan is likely to qualify for that route. The $160 billion for Covid-19 vaccines and testing would likely be out because discretionary spending is excluded from the process, while the proposed minimum-wage hike may also be disqualified for having insufficient budget impact.

Stimulus checks and jobless benefits, two major components, would be in. Aid for state and local governments would face a high hurdle. -- Billy House, Erik Wasson

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