And it's almost certainly going to keep partisan tensions as high as they are at a moment when Biden had really planned on trying to turn the page in trying to reach out to Republicans. First of all, this trial is just going to take up so much time in the Senate, and senators are going to have to focus around it. We have to multitask, which means, as with anyone, we have a lot of priorities and we need to see them through.ĭETROW: It's really going to be harder than that, though. There's a reason that word exists in the English language. KAMALA HARRIS: We know how to multitask (laughter). MARTIN: Does she think that she can, along with the president-elect, focus Congress on this massive aid package while the Senate is in the middle of an impeachment trial?ĭETROW: She's taking the same approach that Joe Biden has been taking and saying that she's determined that this trial will not slow down this first big legislative push. MARTIN: Did you just gesture wildly with your arms? Everything else going on is a whole lot of everything else. But she said this is the new administration's top priority, and she is confident this can pass the House and Senate very quickly, even with everything else going on. So Harris is going to be spending a lot of time casting tie-breaking votes. Democrats are going to have very narrow majorities. There are also some big Democratic priorities in this package, including a longtime goal - raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour.
These are things that Biden and Harris campaigned on, talked about for months, expanding those direct payments - another round of those - expanding unemployment benefits and emergency paid sick leave. So what did Kamala Harris tell you? Where else is that money going?ĭETROW: A lot of places. Tonya mentioned some of what's in there, but $1.9 trillion is a whole lot of money. So Joe Biden wants to start off his administration with a big stimulus plan. SCOTT DETROW, BYLINE: Good morning, Rachel. And Scott woke up very early in the morning to talk to us.
MARTIN: NPR's Scott Detrow, co-host of the NPR Politics Podcast, talked one on one with Harris. MOSLEY: The announcement of this plan comes just days before he and incoming Vice President Kamala Harris are set to take office. More importantly, it's what the values we hold dear in our hearts as Americans are telling us. JOE BIDEN: The crisis of deep human suffering is in plain sight, and there's no time to waste. Here's Biden talking about his plan last night. The massive relief package he laid out includes hundreds of billions of dollars for state and local governments, additional direct payments to qualifying Americans, money for schools to reopen and billions for vaccination efforts. economy navigate its way out of the pandemic. He's calling for $1.9 trillion in new spending to help the U.S. President-elect Joe Biden has identified his first priority.
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