Cassidy suggested the stimulus payments would be as high as $1,000, adding that “there’s been very good analysis that above a certain income level, that money’s not spent.”
Biden has proposed $1,400 checks, topping up $600 payments made as part of a December stimulus package.
Despite the overture from the Republicans, House Budget Chair John Yarmuth said Sunday he plans to move forward on Monday with introducing a fiscal 2021 budget resolution, the first step toward producing a reconciliation bill embodying the Biden stimulus.
The budget is to be voted on by the House later this week and will contain instructions to other committees to assemble the stimulus bill.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is threatening as soon as Tuesday to move the Senate toward reconciliation, which would allow 50 Democrats to pass some parts of the Biden plan without any Republican cooperation.
Schumer on Sunday told the New York Daily News that Republicans should talk to him and other Democratic lawmakers. “They should negotiate with us, not make a take-it-or-leave-it offer,” Schumer said—although the plan the GOP senators announced wasn’t described as “take it or leave it.”
Facing Limits
There are limits on what can be done in reconciliation, though, and spending on health care and education, as well as state and local aid, may be excluded.
A GOP aide, who asked not to be identified, said that if Biden took up the Republicans’ proposal he could attempt some of more contentious elements of his plan later via reconciliation.
The Republican plan would have “all of the health care funding that President Biden has in his proposal,” Portman said, without offering details.
Republicans have raised objections to Biden‘s attempt to use the package to raise the national minimum wage to $15 per hour, among other things.
Other senators signing Sunday’s letter were Todd Young of Indiana, Mike Rounds of South Dakota, Mitt Romney of Utah, Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, Jerry Moran of Kansas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina.
—With assistance from Jennifer Epstein, Gregory Calderone, Tony Czuczka, Yueqi Yang and Naomi Nix.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.