Jim Newell: Welcome to the first-ever Biden-era edition of Congress Chat, the visually alliterative name I have just now given this sporadicallyrecurringseries about deal-making in our national legislature. This will be the first such conversation, then, where I will feel comfortable in it having a longer shelf life than 20 minutes, because the current president—by all accounts—does not screw up carefully laid and coordinated legislative strategy on Twitter for attention. It is unlikely that he even knows how to use Twitter, or the internet, or possibly television on demand. God bless. Advertisement The administration’s first major legislative proposal is another coronavirus relief bill. Biden has requested a $1.9 trillion bill including another round of checks, increased and extended unemployment benefits, state and local aid, a national vaccine plan, money for schools, an expanded child tax credit, a $15 minimum wage, and other delicious items. There was no interest—none—for such an investment on the Republican side, and so Democrats began preparing to use the budget reconciliation process, which would allow them to pass such a bill, under certain constraints, with a simple majority.