What’s subsequent for Biden’s $ 1.9 trillion help bundle?

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Minority Chairman Chuck Schumer (D-NY) speak after a press conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC.

Tasos Katopodis | Getty Images

President Joe Biden’s $ 1.9 trillion stimulus package left the House Budgets Committee on Monday and is now due for a full House vote later this week.

Monday’s markup process was one of the final steps in the House’s reconciliation process, which will allow Democrats to get the bill through the Chamber without GOP support.

The fate of the law now goes to the House Rules Committee, essentially a formality. Then it will be moved to the floor of the House, where the Democrats, led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Are expected to pass it along the party lines on Friday or Saturday. No significant changes were made to the bill as a result of the committee’s impact.

Notwithstanding the objections of the House GOP, it is widely expected that the bill will be sent to the Senate later this week after the House vote. Then a new round of hurdles is expected.

Republicans in both the House and Senate criticized the bill as being too big, especially in the face of a report by the Congressional Budget Office that showed a strong economic recovery even without further relief.

The GOP has also resisted efforts by Democrats to include the minimum wage hike as an alien job-cutting measure that should be considered separately from pandemic aid. Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo., The senior member of the Budgets Committee, voiced such criticism on Monday.

“In that bill, a lot of attention was paid to the $ 15 Washington mandate and whether the Democrats will tear up the reconciliation process to get it through,” Smith said on the serve.

“But it’s also about how these policies would destroy millions of jobs – at least 1.4 million, according to the Congressional Budget Office – and disproportionately harm low-wage workers, disabled workers and less educated workers,” he added.

The Senate will conduct its own review, which is fraught with political haggling and bartering. Some of the bill’s key provisions, such as the extended paid sick leave and $ 15 minimum wage, could be cut out of final legislation as Senate Democrats wade through budget constraints.

All eyes are on the Senate MP, a relatively unknown civil servant who decides with a simple majority which bills will reach the Chamber through reconciliation. The MP’s job will be to determine whether Biden’s discharge bill, including the $ 15 increase in the minimum wage, meets the standards of the Byrd Rule.

While the Byrd Rule is complicated, its overarching and guiding principle is to ensure that any bill passed through the vote is genuinely budget related. So if MP Elizabeth MacDonough decides that the minimum wage hike is not a federal budget concern and is more of a political tool, Democrats will be forced to try to pass the $ 15 minimum wage in the future.

If found acceptable, minimum wage supporters such as Senator Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Will convince moderate Democrats who are skeptical of the wage increase, namely Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Synema of Arizona, to vote for the bill be right.