10 GOP Senators — Including Romney and Susan Collins — Write to Biden to Request Meeting on Covid Relief Counterproposal

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The $1.9 trillion covid relief plan pushed by the Joe Biden administration has received some Republican opposition, and now ten Republican senators are putting out their counterproposal.

The senators signed onto this proposal are: Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Bill Cassidy, Mitt Romney, Rob Portman, Todd Young, Shelley Moore Capito, Jerry Moran, Mike Rounds, and Thom Tillis.

They request a meeting with Biden to discuss their proposal, which includes $160 billion to “enhance our capabilities” with respect to vaccines and PPE production, and economic relief they say is “more targeted assistance than in the Administration’s plan.”

New: 10 Republican senators write a letter asking to meet w/ Biden and discuss a Covid relief counter-proposal they’re working on. They say it’ll have $160b for vaccines, $4b for abuse services, existing UI, nutrition + unspecified policies on “targeted” economic aid and schools. pic.twitter.com/LS34418QCN

— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) January 31, 2021

CNN’s Dana Bash asked Brian Deese, the director of the National Economic Council, about the leet this morning. Deese said that Biden is open to “input from anywhere” to make the bill “as effective as possible,” but he added, “The president is uncompromising when it comes to the speed that we need to act at to address this crisis.”