“What we cannot do is wait weeks and weeks and months and months to go forward. We have got to act now,” he said.
On the urgency to pass a Covid-19 relief package in this new administration, Sanders told Bash: “If we do not respond now, yes, I believe two years from now the Republicans will say, ‘Hey, you elected these guys, they did nothing, vote for us,’ and they will win.”
Asked Friday about senators using budget reconciliation, White House communications director Kate Bedingfield said it was the administration’s “strong preference” that they do not, but suggested it was a bargaining tool.
“Our strong preference, the President’s preference, what we’re working toward here, is bipartisan support for this bill,” she told MSNBC Friday evening. “Absolutely no question about it, it is urgent, and certainly if the Senate and the House keep reconciliation on the table as an option, that’s understandable.”
She said there may be “multiple ways to get to passage, but that does not mean that the President is not wholly committed to working to get Republican votes.”
There are still questions about what parts of Biden’s Covid-19 relief package would be allowed to advance under reconciliation. Some aides have identified that items like the $15 minimum wage could struggle to meet the criteria.
CNN’s Lauren Fox and Nikki Carvajal contributed to this report.
