By Richard Rubin and Eliza Collins
President-elect Joe Biden plans to call for a $1.9 trillion
Covid-19 relief plan to help Americans weather the economic shock
of the pandemic and pump more money into testing and vaccine
distribution, according to senior incoming Biden administration
officials.
Mr. Biden in a speech Thursday evening plans to lay out
priorities related to the pandemic for the early days of his
administration. He will urge Congress to back a round of
$1,400-per-person direct payments to most households, a
$400-per-week unemployment insurance supplement through September,
expanded paid leave and increases in the child tax credit. Aid for
households makes up about half of the plan's cost, with much of the
rest going to vaccine distribution and state and local
governments.
Mr. Biden, a Democrat, is set to take office on Wednesday as the
virus death toll has topped 3,000 daily deaths repeatedly in recent
weeks and the country deals with the economic fallout from
continued business and school closures. The Senate is also expected
to hold a trial after the House impeached President Trump for the
second time.
Mr. Biden wants Congress to act quickly to address what he sees
as a national emergency, the officials said. The plan includes some
ideas previously floated by congressional Democrats and Mr. Biden's
campaign that Republicans have rejected -- including raising the
minimum wage to $15 an hour -- and it isn't clear which pieces can
become law and how soon lawmakers will act. Most legislation needs
60 votes in the Senate, which would require Republican votes since
Democrats will control 50 seats.
"We will get right to work to turn President-elect Biden's
vision into legislation that will pass both chambers and be signed
into law," Sen. Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader, and House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) said in a joint statement.
Brian Riedl, a budget expert at the right-leaning Manhattan
Institute who has advised Republican lawmakers, said spending to
accelerate vaccinations and to reopen schools could get widespread
support. However, Mr. Riedl criticized the full package as too big
and broad. "It's too much of a grab bag of traditional Democratic
priorities that don't relate to the downturn," he said.
Mr. Biden is also expected to release a second proposal focused
on economic recovery that will also use jobs and infrastructure as
a tool to combat climate change, the officials said.
Mr. Biden's American Rescue Plan calls for additional stimulus
checks beyond the $1,200 round approved in March and the $600 set
approved in December, sending out an additional $1,400 per person
to bring the amount sent to families in the past few months to the
$2,000 mark he promised. He would expand eligibility to include
adult dependents such as college students who were excluded from
previous versions.
In a poverty-fighting move long sought by many Democrats, the
child tax credit would rise from $2,000 to $3,000 for this year
under his plan, with an additional $600 for children under 6 years
old and new rules that would let the poorest households get the
full benefit. The plan also includes money to help households with
the costs of rent and child care, plus $350 billion for state and
local governments.
Mr. Biden will propose to extend the eviction and foreclosure
moratorium, which currently goes until the end of this month,
through the end of September.
While Mr. Biden supports $10,000 of student loan forgiveness,
the current proposal doesn't include it, an official said. Instead
the focus will be on extending student loan forbearance, which
allows people to temporarily pause loan payments.
The president-elect won't offer spending-cut or tax-increase
offsets for his plan and will instead rely on federal borrowing,
according to a Biden official. Mr. Biden's argument is that now
isn't the time to worry about widening budget deficits, given the
emergency and low interest rates. He has said Congress should help
tide households over until the pandemic eases and address an uneven
recovery in which many low-income people are struggling while
white-collar workers are saving more.
"There's no sugarcoating it. The country faces unprecedented
challenges, " Sen. Ron Wyden (D., Ore.), the likely new chairman of
the Finance Committee, said earlier this week. He said he sees the
mid-March expiration of $300-per-week unemployment insurance as a
crucial deadline for congressional action. "The country isn't going
to be back to normal by March."
Glenn Hubbard, a Columbia Business School professor who was
President George W. Bush's chief economist, said a big plan would
be better than one that wasn't large enough. "One lesson from the
financial crisis is that you want to be careful about doing too
little," he said.
The budget package would include $50 billion to increase
coronavirus testing, including at schools, as well as federal funds
for states, a national vaccination program, disaster relief,
expansion of the public-health workforce, and other efforts to
support Mr. Biden's push to deliver 100 million shots in the first
100 days of his presidency. The plan calls for providing free
vaccines to people regardless of their immigration status, which
could face pushback from some Republicans.
Mr. Biden, echoing his campaign rhetoric about working across
the aisle, will push for a bipartisan agreement, the officials
said. In a Senate that is set to be split 50-50, that would mean
holding all Democrats and persuading at least 10 Republicans to
join him to overcome procedural hurdles. Democrats hold a narrow
majority in the House.
On some aspects of the plan, bipartisan support is possible.
Some GOP senators, including Florida's Marco Rubio, support bigger
stimulus checks.
Last year, lawmakers reached a stalemate when Republicans
resisted aid for state and local governments and Democrats objected
to a liability shield for businesses. The result was a postelection
deal of about $900 billion, which Democrats described as a down
payment.
Now, because they won both Senate seats in Georgia this month,
Democrats could use special fast-track rules known as budget
reconciliation to advance a more partisan bill, which would require
just 51 votes in the Senate. If the 50 Democrats remain united,
they could tap Vice President-elect Kamala Harris to cast the
tiebreaking vote. But that path comes with restrictions, including
a limited number of times Democrats can use it this year and rules
that confine reconciliation bills to tax and fiscal matters rather
than broader policies.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who will chair the committee in
charge of budget reconciliation, has been talking in recent days
with Mr. Biden and his team about relief efforts. Mr. Sanders has
also been crafting a relief package of his own that can move
through reconciliation and includes stimulus checks.
"I think there will probably be different approaches, but we're
all rowing in the same direction here to address the enormous
crises facing working families. I can certainly tell you we are
going to be as aggressive as we possibly can in the midst of this
terrible crisis," he said.
South Carolina Rep. James Clyburn, the Democratic whip, said he
expects relief efforts to be broken up into what is possible
immediately, with bipartisan support, and what may need to wait for
reconciliation.
"What's got to be done right away, we don't have time for
reconciliation, " he said.
Much of the health portion of the funding package would go
directly toward combating the virus through more testing and faster
vaccine administration. Mr. Biden will urge Congress to provide
$160 billion in funding as part of launching the national
vaccination program, expanding testing, mobilizing a public-health
jobs program, and other steps to build capacity to fight the
virus.
Mr. Biden would set up community vaccination sites nationwide,
address health disparities such as equitable distribution of
vaccines, and eliminate supply shortage problems, according to his
campaign.
The president-elect also plans to work with Congress to boost
federal funds to Medicaid to cover vaccine administration following
repeated calls for additional increases from governors.
Mr. Biden is also proposing a $30 billion investment for a
national disaster relief program that would enable full
reimbursement to states for deploying the National Guard for
emergency response.
Mr. Biden's Covid-19 advisory board has been working on ways to
increase vaccinations as more states identify a more transmissible
variant that has driven a spike in cases in the U.K., according to
one person familiar with the discussions.
Many states have struggled to increase administration of the
vaccine, citing inconsistent information on arriving doses from the
federal government and health departments already stretched thin
financially by dealing with the coronavirus. Congress on Dec. 21
approved $8.4 billion to help states with their efforts, but by
then the vaccination rollout was already under way, and some states
say it will take weeks to hire enough staff for more extensive
vaccination campaigns.
If manufacturing projections previously put forth by companies
hold up, Mr. Biden's pledge to administer 100 million doses of
Covid-19 vaccines during the first 100 days of his presidency
should be possible, according to manufacturing and supply chain
experts.
Stephanie Armour contributed to this article.
Write to Richard Rubin at richard.rubin@wsj.com and Eliza
Collins at eliza.collins@wsj.com.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 14, 2021 19:23 ET (00:23 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2021 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.