Here's what we know about the new stimulus check 0:54
(CNN) -
This week is President Joe Biden's first big test, as the details of his economic stimulus bill against COVID-19 are finalized on Capitol Hill with very little bipartisan support.
As the United States is nearing 500,000 deaths and has been in a pandemic for nearly a year that has devastated the economy, increased unemployment, closed businesses and destroyed families, Democrats will try to stand together and pass massive relief. $ 1.9 trillion, testing your ability to meet the president and lead together.
Bottom line: the next three weeks will give us insight into how moderate Democrats and progressives work together, who is willing to follow through on their threats to torpedo the legislation, and who is willing to put aside their political grievances in the name of vision. more general.
The goal is for the bill to be approved and signed by March 14.
Everything has to go smoothly for that to happen.
Controlling one party in the House, Senate, and White House is never as easy as it sounds, and that is true even when talking about legislation that is very popular with the American population.
When undecided members are asked in favor of a bill that includes provisions that they may not like as much, their response is simple: You can't vote against Biden's first big petition, and you certainly won't. you can vote against such a popular poll package as this one.
What you'll see in the House of Representatives this week
The House Budget Committee will meet Monday at 1 p.m. ET to review its 591-page bill and work to remove it from committee.
The review will be an opportunity for Republicans to send their messages against the bill, criticize the increase in health care subsidies, attack the provisions that provide funds for the humanities, the arts and the preservation of Native American languages. - who will argue that they have nothing to do with coronavirus - and oppose the total cost of the package.
They are going to propose amendments that we do not expect to pass and then when everyone is fed up there will be a vote to remove the bill from committee and send it to plenary.
The final vote on the package in plenary will be later this week, probably on Friday or Saturday.
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Pelosi's dynamics
Since taking the deck in the 117th Congress, Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi has directed her narrow majority with precision.
The next five days are going to be the riskiest time for the new Congress so far.
Pelosi has a margin of just five votes.
That means you cannot afford to lose a group of progressives nor can you afford a moderate rebellion on this bill.
There are no signs that this will happen, but a week is an eternity in Washington.
The dynamics change and the longer a bill spends in the public, the more time there is for scrutiny.
The moderate lawmakers I have spoken to have repeatedly hinted that Pelosi has made it clear to the commission that this bill is a priority for the president and what it contains is a carbon copy of what he has asked of House Democrats. Approving Representatives.
In other words, there is no room for change at this point, and for most moderates that is fine.
Will they always accept that easy?
Probably not.
But this time around, as one Democrat told CNN, the bill is popular and there is no point in sinking it.
"He is not fighting the bureaucracy here," the moderate Democrat told CNN.
"There will be a long time for things to get more complicated in infrastructure and immigration," he added.
The Republican offense to the economic stimulus proposal
Republican leaders in the House of Representatives have made it clear to their members that they do not want them to vote for Biden's economic stimulus package.
They have urged a "no" vote and are doing everything they can to ensure that the Biden administration does not have the satisfaction of having the legislation passed with bipartisan support.
They want this to be a story about how Biden promised unity and then got his first big bill passed without a single Republican vote.
The stimulus check could come at a political cost 2:30
They want to make a process argument out of this, and that's because, as CNN reported over the weekend, it's difficult to launch an entire campaign against a bill that provides direct checks, an increase in the child tax credit, expanded unemployment benefits and more funding for vaccines.
In the case of Republicans attacking the bill's merits, you can expect them to argue that the legislation includes provisions that are not related to coronavirus relief at all.
Republicans are also criticizing Democrats for changing the formula for state and local funding to lean more toward states with higher unemployment rates.
Those states tended to be places with stricter coronavirus protocols, and are therefore more likely to be controlled by Democratic governors.
The previous formula was a base of $ 1.25 billion for each state plus extra money for each city in the state with a population of more than 500,000.
That formula favored the states with the largest populations.
The current formula leans in favor of those who may have been out of business longer to guard against the pandemic.
What you will see in the Senate
In the Senate, work on the bill will be more behind the scenes.
Nonetheless, it is perhaps the most interesting story to watch this week, as the events of the next few days can ultimately determine whether this bill can pass the Senate.
As early as Tuesday, Democratic and Republican staff will sit down with Senate MP Elizabeth MacDonough to discuss whether the $ 15 minimum wage is allowed under the budget reconciliation process.
The ins and outs of the federal minimum wage increase 1:04
That process is a double-edged sword.
On the one hand, it allows a bill to be passed in the Senate with only 51 votes.
On the other, in order to do so, a strict series of rules must be complied with about what is allowed.
You have seen Senator Bernie Sanders and his staff expressing great confidence that they will win this fight.
A note of caution: it does not depend on them.
It depends on the parliamentarian.
Yes, it is true that the same MP allowed a provision to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to go through this process during 2017, but each provision is unique.
And since none of us are a total expert on Senate rules, it's hard to predict how it will work out.
As one attendee told me last week when the Democrats initially met with MacDonough, "she was stoic" at the meeting and did not lean one way or the other.
Let's talk about the 'Byrd bathroom' and its impact on the economic stimulus
Tuesday's meeting is formally called a "Byrd bathroom" (there is actually more than one bathroom because Republicans and Democrats will discuss a number of issues in multiple meetings throughout the week. But for minimum wage purposes, the Byrd bathroom begins morning).
The process is named after the late West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd, who established a set of rules that governed the budget reconciliation process.
The rules were intended to ensure that the party with the majority did not resort to conciliation to pass anything in the Senate with only 51 votes.
The rules include issues such as that the provision has to have more than an "incidental" impact on the country's budget.
The parliamentarian will use those indicators and the precedent to issue an "opinion" on whether she believes a minimum wage provision is allowed through this process.
The ruling is likely to be transmitted by email hours or even days after the meeting.
That means we could have a decision as early as Tuesday night or Wednesday morning, but maybe later as it will be up to the committee to share it with us.
Other elements that we expect will come under close scrutiny by the parliamentarian include a pension provision for multi-employers and potentially paid leave.
Because it is important
As archaic as a parliamentary opinion may seem, it is important because it could ultimately determine whether this economic stimulus bill will have the votes it takes to pass or not.
Two moderate Democrats, Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, have made it clear that they cannot support the economic stimulus bill with the $ 15 minimum wage. Progressives are counting on that provision being included.
Underneath, Democratic senators and aides CNN is speaking to across the caucus argue that a decision by the MP to remove that issue may be the only way to avoid a major schism within the party in the first major US legislation. Biden.
Economic stimulus
