President Joe Biden said he’s open to negotiate on his $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief proposal, and is hopeful to bring Republicans behind it, though didn’t rule out pursuing a Democrat-only route, Bloomberg News reported. “I’m open to negotiate,” Biden said at a news conference on Monday. Still, he said “time is of the essence and I must tell you I’m reluctant to cherry pick and take out one or two items here.” Biden said that it would be up to lawmakers as to whether to use a budget-rule procedure in the Senate to forgo Republicans and proceed just with Democratic support. He also said that it won’t be clear if there’s a basis for agreement until the final stage of talks, which he anticipated in a “couple” of weeks. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said yesterday that he aims to secure passage of the next round of COVID-19 relief by mid-March, just when jobless benefits from the last package will be running out. “We’ll try to get that passed in the next month, month and a half,” Schumer said with regard to pandemic aid on Monday, speaking on a call with New York City mass-transit advocates. A bipartisan group of senators, along with the Republican and Democratic leaders of a moderate group of House representatives, on Sunday questioned the White House on the basis for Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus proposal. Brian Deese, head of Biden’s National Economic Council, was pressed on the justification for the price tag of the plan, which would be the second-largest emergency spending package on record. GOP Senator Susan Collins of Maine said she’d suggest to the bipartisan group that it look at pulling together its own, more targeted, proposal.
