W.H. Spox Bedingfield: ‘Understandable’ to Keep Budget Reconciliation as Option to Pass COVID Relief

On Friday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “All In,” White House Communications Director Kate Bedingfield stated that while President Joe Biden prefers to pass his coronavirus relief package with Republican support, passing the bill is the most important thing, it’s “understandable” if the House and Senate keep using budget reconciliation to pass the bill, “and there may be multiple ways to get to passage.”

Bedingfield said, “Well, look, again, our strong preference, the president’s preference, what we’re working toward here is bipartisan support for this bill, absolutely no question about it. But it is urgent and certainly, if the Senate and the House keep reconciliation on the table as an option, that’s understandable. This is an urgent crisis, and we — at the end of the day, the thing that is most important is that we need to get this bill done. We need to get this money into the hands of people all across the country who need it. So, again, the president’s preference and the thing that he’s working toward is getting Republican support for this bill. But there’s no question this is an urgent, urgent crisis and 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.”

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