House Passes Budget to Speed Biden's Plan

The House passed a budget Wednesday evening that smooths the path for fast-track passage of President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief plan. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen met with Democratic and Republican mayors in an effort to bolster support for the proposal.

The House vote followed action by the Senate on Tuesday to consider a similar budget resolution -- beginning a process that would let Democrats proceed with the Biden stimulus without Republican votes. Still, the president told reporters before an Oval Office meeting with Democratic senators that he thought some Republicans would support his package.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Tuesday that the legislative process the Democrats are using, known as reconciliation, is open to GOP participation and that the stimulus bill can still be tweaked with their input. But he said Democrats won’t risk moving slowly or timidly to strengthen the economy.

House Passes Budget to Set up Stimulus Fast Track

The House passed a fiscal 2021 budget resolution on a 218 to 212 vote, easing the path for passing legislation based on Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus plan with just Democratic votes.

The Senate plans to follow suit, passing an identical version of the budget later this week; the upper chamber on Tuesday voted along party lines to begin debate on that budget resolution.

Congressional committees will then have until Feb. 16 to craft a bill according to instructions in the budget and the House could vote on it as soon as Feb. 23. That bill will be able to pass the Senate with just 50 votes plus a vice presidential tie-breaker, rather than the usual 60 votes that would require Republican cooperation.

“We have the plan and the ability to do this. And, thankfully, we can also afford to do it. Interest rates and inflation are at historic lows -- lower today than even before the pandemic -- and the return on smart investments in the economy have never been higher,” House Budget Committee Chairman John Yarmuth, a Kentucky Democrat, said on the House floor.

Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone of New Jersey said there is a lot of work left to draft the details of the bill over the next two weeks but he expects it to end up hewing closely to what Biden proposed.