GOP COVID relief offer includes $1,000 checks. Here’s how it compares to Biden’s plan

A group of Republican senators released a slimmed-down coronavirus relief deal as a counteroffer to President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion plan.

The 10 senators, led by Maine’s Susan Collins, unveiled the plan on Monday morning which includes $1,000 direct payments to Americans instead of the $1,400 checks proposed by Biden.

The group sent a letter to Biden on Sunday urging him to consider their smaller COVID-19 relief counterproposal and will meet with the president later Monday as Biden decides whether to forge ahead with the proposal with only Democratic votes.

The $618 billion GOP plan includes:

• $1,000 stimulus checks for individuals making up to $40,000 a year and phasing them out completely when income reaches $50,000. Joint filers would get $2,000 with a phasing out beginning at $80,000 a year with an income cap at $100,000;

• $500 per adult and child dependent;

• $300 per week for unemployment benefits through June 30;

• $160 billion for the pandemic response, including $20 billion for the national vaccine program, $50 billion for expansion of testing and $30 billion for disaster relief;

• $20 billion for K-12 schools;

• $50 billion for small businesses, including the Paycheck Protection Program.

In addition to stimulus checks, Biden’s emergency plan unveiled in January also includes extended unemployment benefits, $415 billion to boost the pandemic response and rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, about $440 billion for small businesses and communities and $130 billion for schools. The plan also calls for raising the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour.

Unlike the Republican plan, Biden has proposed $400 a week for unemployment benefits that would be extended through September. Biden has also allotted $350 billion in aid for state and local governments — a priority for Democrats; the Republican plan doesn’t include state or local support.

“I’m open to negotiate,” Biden said at a news conference last week, adding that “time is of the essence and I must tell you I’m reluctant to cherry pick and take out one or two items here.”

The group of 10 GOP senators is significant because it’s the number of Republican votes Democrats would need for the 60-vote threshold to pass the deal through regular Senate procedures.

The Republican counteroffer also comes as the House is expected to pass a budget resolution this week, which is the first step toward approving a COVID-19 relief bill through reconciliation, CNBC reports.

Reconciliation is a process that allows for “expedited consideration” of legislation on spending, taxes and debt. Reconciliation would allow Democrats to bypass the 60-vote requirement. Democrats control the chamber with a 50-50 split and Vice President Kamala Harris as the tie-breaking vote.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, said that the “preference” for Democrats is for the coronavirus plan to be bipartisan.

“But if our Republican colleagues decide to oppose this urgent and necessary legislation, we will have to move forward without them,” Schumer said.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Sunday that Biden has spoken to Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and is “grateful that Congress is prepared to begin action on the American Rescue Plan in just his second full week in office,” Politico reported. Psaki indicated that Biden’s hasn’t changed his stance on passing the coronavirus package with all Democratic votes despite agreeing to meet with the GOP senators.

“With the virus posing a grave threat to the country, and economic conditions grim for so many, the need for action is urgent, and the scale of what must be done is large,” Psaki said.

Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who was part of the bipartisan group of senators pushing back on Biden’s proposed $1,400 stimulus payments, said he hopes lawmakers can pass the deal “in a bipartisan way.”

“We ought to try to do what we can do in a bipartisan way. Let’s do that first — show them that we can start out the new Congress bipartisan,” Manchin said. “And what we don’t agree on in a bipartisan way, then Senator Schumer and the leadership and the Democrat Party has other means to move things along, and I think it’s appropriate.”