Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) predicted Tuesday that House Republicans will vote against the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill – and then take credit for it.
Pelosi made the remark during a news conference, one day before the House is expected to vote on the revised version of the bill and send it to President Biden for his signature.
”In any event, all of it excellent. All of it fair. All of it an opportunity for us to grow the economy by investing in the people for the people,” Pelosi said of the bill. “And I might say for our Republican colleagues who — they say no to the vote and they show up at the ribbon cuttings or the presentations.”
Pelosi later in the press conference derided Republicans for voting against in this bill what she said were many of the same features they had voted in favor of in previous relief bills signed by former President Trump .
“That’s unfortunate,” she said. “As I said, they’ll take some credit for it in their districts.”
The House was originally set to pass the mammoth relief bill on Tuesday, but the lower chamber had only received the processing papers from the Senate that morning.
The revised bill, which the upper chamber voted 50-49 to advance early Saturday morning, includes $1,400 stimulus checks for most Americans, extended unemployment benefits and aid for state and local governments.
However, the revised version removes language increasing the minimum wage to $15 an hour after the Senate parliamentarian ruled the provision violated budget reconciliation rules. It also reduces the cutoff for partial stimulus checks to $80,000 for individual sand $160,000 for couples.
The Senate version also extends $300 weekly unemployment payments into September, and makes the first $10,200 in unemployment benefits tax-free for households making up to $150,000 in income.
Pelosi expressed confidence on Tuesday that the bill would pass.
“Our members have good judgement, and they know that this legislation is just something historic and transformative…it’s hard for us to understand how the Republicans can vote against this bill because it has such an impact on their constituents,” Pelosi said.
“We feel pretty confident about,” Pelosi said. “I’m so excited, I just can’t hide it.”