Democrats are kicking off efforts to ditch Republicans on stimulus as Biden administration defends its $1.9 trillion relief package

• Democrats began the reconciliation process Monday, a move to pass Biden's $1.9 trillion relief package without the GOP.
• "The cost of inaction is high and growing, and the time for decisive action is now," Pelosi and Schumer said.
• The development came ahead of a meeting between Biden and a group of Senate Republicans pushing him to shrink the size of his plan.

Democrats filed a joint budget resolution in Congress on Monday, kicking off efforts to sidestep Republicans on economic relief. It's the first step in securing the passage of President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion emergency spending package without GOP support.

"Congress has a responsibility to quickly deliver immediate comprehensive relief to the American people hurting from COVID-19," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a joint statement. "The cost of inaction is high and growing, and the time for decisive action is now."

The resolution instructs committees to draft legislation for the Biden proposal by February 16. Titled "The American Rescue Plan," it contains $400 federal unemployment benefits until the end of September, a $1,400 top-up to stimulus payments, and $160 billion in vaccine-distribution and virus-testing funds, among other measures.

Congressional Democrats announced the resolution only hours before Biden was scheduled to meet with a group of 10 Senate Republicans. The working group - led by Sen. Susan Collins of Maine - rolled out a $618 billion stimulus counteroffer on Monday.

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It would curtail federal spending on a variety of relief measures, including stimulus checks and unemployment insurance. The Republican proposal included $1,000 direct payments for Americans and $300 federal unemployment benefits through June 30. It allocated the same amount of funding for vaccines and testing as in the Biden plan.

Many Congressional Republicans are staunchly opposed to the Biden proposal, arguing the economy doesn't need another large infusion of federal spending after lawmakers approved $900 billion in December. Over the past year, Congress has authorized around $4 trillion in emergency spending through a handful of bills.

The Biden administration strongly defended its relief proposal ahead of the evening meeting.

"His view is that the size of the package needs to be commensurate with the crises we're facing. That's why he proposed $1.9 trillion," White House press secretary Jen Psaki said at a news conference on Monday. She added it was "not a forum for the president to make or accept an offer."

"It's important to him that he hears this group out on their concerns, on their ideas," she said. "He's always open to making this package stronger."

The gathering at the White House ended up stretching around two hours, and Vice President Kamala Harris was also in attendance. The group held a two-minute press conference afterward. Collins called it "an excellent meeting" and expressed confidence that a bipartisan deal could be struck, but she did not take any questions.

"It was a very good exchange of views," Collins said on the White House driveway. "I wouldn't say that we came together on a package tonight. No one expected that, but what we agreed to do is to follow up and talk further at the staff level and amongst ourselves."

Following the meeting, Psaki released a statement calling the discussion productive, but said Biden would not slow down work on the crisis response and would not settle for a package that fails to "meet the moment."

"While there were areas of agreement, the President also reiterated his view that Congress must respond boldly and urgently, and noted many areas which the Republican senators' proposal does not address," Psaki said.

She said Biden remains hopeful that the group can continue discussing ways to improve the American Rescue Plan and find areas of common ground.

Many Democrats in Congress are assailing the Republican plan as deeply insufficient to address the crisis. Notably, it did not contain aid for state and local governments, a major Democratic priority. It also did not set aside any funding for rental assistance, a larger child tax credit, or a raise to the minimum wage.

Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, the incoming Democratic chair of the Senate Finance Committee, said in a statement the GOP proposal was "far too small to provide the relief the American people need." He warned of another unemployment cliff for millions of laid-off workers in only six weeks.

The failure of Congress to approve more federal legislation would cause enhanced unemployment benefits to start expiring on March 14. Michele Evermore, a policy analyst at the National Employment Law Project, said many states were still struggling to restart their jobless benefits after Congress allowed them to lapse last month.

"These are people that have been living on poverty-level wages for months," she told Insider. "The people who are waiting the longest are the people who exhausted them before the end of December."