The Biden administration will push Congress to pass a $1.9 trillion pandemic stimulus bill, including $1,400 in direct payments, according to a spokesman, who said it’s needed to avert an economic crisis.
Brian Deese, the director of the National Economic Council, has told reporters that he will speak to senators as part of a White House push to make the case for a larger stimulus package.
Biden added, “We have the tools to fix it. We have the tools to get through this. We have the tools to get this virus under control and our economy back on track. And we have the tools to help people. So let’s use the tools, all of them. Use them now.”
A number of Republican lawmakers have pushed back on the price tag.
“Spending and borrowing trillions of dollars from the Chinese among others is not necessarily the best thing we can do to get our economy to be strong long term,” Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) told Fox News, adding that the “total figure is pretty shocking.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said that COVID-19 relief, the confirmation of Biden’s cabinet picks, and the impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump need to be completed soon.
Schumer has yet to come up with an organizing resolution with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the Democratic Majority Whip, told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he was hopeful for a show of bipartisanship in the Senate.
“The object is trying to see if there’s an area of agreement we can launch when it comes to this rescue package,” Durbin said.