WASHINGTON — Democrats in both chambers appear ready to pass a Senate-negotiated $10 billion COVID-19 supplemental for domestic preparedness efforts without international aid, but they have to eliminate GOP obstacles in the Senate first.
Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer wants to pass the supplemental this week but has said confirming Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court is “the highest Senate priority by far.”
To get both done before the Senate departs for its scheduled two-week Easter and Passover recess will require unanimous consent from all 100 senators to speed up the normal procedural process on the supplemental.
“Approving this package is simply the sensible, responsible, and necessary thing to do,” Schumer said in floor remarks Tuesday. “Republicans and Democrats alike should now work together to make sure we can move this package through the chamber.”
Republicans are not ready to give consent for a speedy vote on the $10 billion COVID-19 aid bill, even though several GOP senators plan to support the underlying bill.
“Job one is to see what we do today to be sure that … enough of our members are satisfied that this needs to be done and this is the best way to do it,” Missouri Sen. Roy Blunt, who helped negotiate the package as the top Republican on the Senate Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Subcommittee, said.
Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions ranking member Richard M. Burr, R-N.C., another lead negotiator, said he’s not sure whether 10 GOP votes for the package have been secured yet. He added that GOP objections to a time agreement could derail plans for a vote this week, “so it might be when we come back.”
Title 42 debate
One of the primary GOP demands is an amendment vote on Title 42, the public health directive that has been used for more than two years to expel asylum-seeking migrants at the border.
The Biden administration announced last week it would stop Title 42 border expulsions by May 23, a move Department of Homeland Security officials say will likely cause a spike in illegal border crossings.
It’s not yet clear the exact language Republicans are seeking but their goal is to block the administration from ending Title 42 prematurely. Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., said he believed a Title 42 amendment would be germane and would only need a simple majority to be adopted.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said he would “absolutely” be open to an amendment that, if adopted, would force the Biden administration to reinstate Title 42.
“It’s utterly insane that the administration claims to be concerned about COVID,” he said. “At the same time, they’ve decided just to throw open the doors to illegal aliens who are COVID-positive.”
Sen. James Lankford said Republicans have discussed “quite a few options” on how to address Title 42, which in addition to an amendment could include motions to instruct.
“You can’t in one sweep say the pandemic’s over at the border, but we’re still firing members of the military who are not getting a COVID shot [and] are still leaving other restrictions in place. We still have mask mandates on planes,” the Oklahoma Republican said. “So it’s nonsensical.”
A handful of moderate Democrats have opposed the rescission of Title 42, though none have yet committed to backing a Republican amendment on the issue. But if a GOP amendment is deemed germane and allowed a vote on a simple-majority threshold, it could be adopted if even one of those Democrats supports it.
Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., who cautioned against the rollback of Title 42 alongside Sens. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., and Joe Manchin III, D-W.Va., said he was talking to Republican colleagues.
“I’m open to getting to a point where this does not wind up being a complete mess here at the end of May,” said Kelly, who’s considered among the most vulnerable Democrats up for reelection in November.
But most Democrats warned Republicans against holding up the supplemental over the Title 42 matter.
“I think that we need a clean COVID relief package,” Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., said. “If we’re going to get into amendments, then I might have a few of my own.”
‘Take that deal’
Beyond the Title 42 amendment discussion, few other issues have cropped up yet but both parties planned to discuss the supplemental further in their caucus luncheons Tuesday.
Although Democrats were disappointed about the lack of international aid, even some of the most vocal proponents of that piece say they will vote for the $10 billion domestic package.
Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, the lead GOP negotiator, “has promised he’s going to bring 10 Republicans to the table for a domestic COVID protection plan, and we better take that deal while we can,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said.
Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., said the $10 billion is “not everything that’s needed between now and the end of the year, but it’s a good first step.”
Schumer said in a statement Monday and floor remarks Tuesday that he is planning for future Senate consideration of a bipartisan supplemental appropriations package that will include the international assistance for COVID-19, as well as other timely priorities like additional Ukraine aid and funding for global food security.
“Nevertheless, this week’s agreement is carefully negotiated,” Schumer said of the $10 billion domestic package. “We bent over backwards when our Republican colleagues did not want to accept certain kinds of pay-fors, which we thought were appropriate and have always been used. But we thought it was so important to get this done that we did that.”
House opposition waning
Threats from House Democrats about voting against the Senate-negotiated supplemental over the exclusion of international aid also appeared to be dissipating.
Members left a Tuesday morning Democratic Caucus meeting saying their leadership urged passage of the $10 billion in domestic funding when the Senate sends it over, and most seemed ready to oblige.
“We have to get done what we can get done,” Rep. Andy Levin, D-Mich., said. “There is so much that the Senate fails to do that we think they should do. … In this case, we want to support the Biden administration you know, sort of step by step.”
Fighting to pass international assistance will be part of the next step, he said.
“We’ve got to vaccinate the world. So it’s going to be a problem until we get it done,” Levin said. “And we’re going to keep focusing on it. It’s going to be major focus for me, for sure.”
House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer said the chamber will take up the supplemental as soon as the Senate passes it and that he expects few, if any, Democrats will vote against it.
“We need to pass that before we leave,” the Maryland Democrat said. The House is currently scheduled to adjourn for the Easter and Passover recess Thursday but Hoyer said that plan holding “is dependent upon what the Senate does.”
Rep. Tom Malinowski, D-N.J., who had said last week he didn’t think a COVID-19 supplemental could pass the House without international funding, said Tuesday he was undecided on the $10 billion domestic package.
But he seemed more open to supporting it given various conversations already underway about a separate international aid package, including Romney saying he would try to get 60 votes in the Senate for one.
“I just want a vehicle to get the international funding done,” Malinowski said, citing another supplemental, a bipartisan competitiveness package and a filibuster-proof reconciliation package as options. “Because I don’t see a distinction between international or domestic. We either spend a few billion dollars to fight this in Africa and Asia or we spend a few trillion dollars to fight it again in the United States. That’s a no-brainer.”
