Senate Democrats and the Biden administration are forging ahead with President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill, which the House passed over the weekend, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor.
And they will do so without a key progressive measure included – increasing the federal minimum wage to $15.
“The Senate will take up the American Rescue Plan this week,” Schumer said. “I expect a hardy debate and some late nights, but the American people sent us here with a job to do … to end through action the greatest health crisis our country has faced in a century.”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) slammed the bill, calling it a “bonanza of partisan spending they’re calling a pandemic rescue package” and calling an extension of federal unemployment benefits included in the bill “a premium to stay home that would extend well into a recovery where job growth and rehiring would be pivotal.”
The bill provides $1,400 payments to individuals plus hundreds of billions of dollars for schools and colleges, COVID-19 vaccines and testing, mass transit systems, renters and small businesses, as well as money for child care, and an expansion to tax breaks for families with children.
Senate Democrats may reshape the $350 billion the bill provides for state and local governments. They also might extend its fresh round of emergency unemployment benefits, which would be $400 weekly, through September instead of August, as the House approved.
The move comes as Progressive Caucus Deputy Whip Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) and 22 Democratic House lawmakers sent a letter to President Biden and Vice President Harris, urging them to override the Senate parliamentarian’s ruling regarding the federal minimum wage increase.
Elizabeth MacDonough, the U.S. Senate’s nonpartisan parliamentarian, has ruled that an increase of the federal minimum wage to $15 can not be included in the COVID-19 relief bill, dealing a fatal blow to the prospect of increasing the federal minimum wage, which has been set at $7.25 since 2009.
Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Ron Wyden (D-OR) said that they were considering a tax on large companies that did not increase their minimum wage, but Democratic Senate aides speaking on the condition of anonymity said that they are dropping efforts to include a $15 minimum wage increase in the bill at all. The Washington Post was the first to report the decision.
A number of progressives and outside groups have urged Biden and Harris to ignore the advice of the parliamentarian, which would require the support of 50 Senators. It would take 60 votes to overrule Harris’ decision, but such a move has never been done under the reconciliation process.
“This ruling is a bridge too far. We’ve been asked, politely but firmly, to compromise on nearly all of our principles & goals. Not this time,” the letter said. “If we don’t overrule the Senate parliamentarian, we are condoning poverty wages for millions of Americans. That’s why I’m leading my colleagues in urging the Biden Administration to lean on the clear precedent and overrule this misguided decision.”
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters that the Biden administration would not pursue such a course of action: “That’s not an action we intend to take,” Psaki said, adding that they do not have the support of 50 Senators for such a move.
“The decision for the vice president to vote to overrule or to take a step to overrule is not a simple decision. It would also require 50 votes,” she said, “And the president and the vice president both respect the history of the Senate.”
Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, the no. 2 Democrat in the Senate, also poured water on the idea. “I don’t think that’s going to work,” he said, giving hope to future endeavors to increase the minimum wage. “I hope that we think very seriously about dealing with the minimum wage in a different venue.”
Progressives have aggressively pushed for an increase to the minimum wage since taking the Senate and White House, but moderate Democrats – namely Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) – had previously objected to including the minimum wage hike in the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill.
Republicans have been staunch opponents of the increased minimum wage, believing that it would cost jobs and impact businesses; they have also opposed the relief bill, saying it is too expensive.
Removal of the minimum wage hike might ultimately make the bill easier to pass, as it would likely all but guarantee Manchin and Sinema’s support, giving Democrats the 50 votes they need to pass President Biden’s top legislative priority of his early presidency.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said that the House will “absolutely” pass the COVID-19 relief bill, with or without minimum wage.
Psaki said that Biden still supports increasing the minimum wage, but did not commit to a specific plan about how to carry it out: “We don’t have a clear answer on what that looks like at this point. It just remains a commitment and something he will use his political capital to get done.”
“The president’s focus this week and in coming weeks, until it’s passed, is on the American Rescue Plan,” Psaki added. “It’s absolutely critical Congress act, and we certainly hope they do that as quickly as possible.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
