despite republican efforts to slow down the final vote with a flurry of last-minute objections on the house floor. the bill would create a massive surge of new funding that will send $1,400 checks to tens of millions of americans, provide billions in aid for schools, small businesses, state governments, and the vaccine distribution effort and slash health care premiums for many obamacare recipients. joining me now is nbc's garrett haake on dpl xl. nbc chief white house correspondent and weekend today co-host peter alexander. former maryland democratic congresswoman donna edwards. and former republican national committee communications chairman. garrett, the efforts to get this through debate for an early vote hit a roadblock this morning from congresswoman marjorie kalear greene from georgia, the controversial congresswoman. tell us how that went down. >> yeah, look, these are the procedural tools that can be applied by the minority and in this case it's not terribly surprising. marjorie taylor greene and other republicans have been doing these motions to adjourn on basically every day the house has been in session. not a huge surprise they tried to do so today. but this is the reality in the house. when you're in the minority there is a lot you can do to slow down the process, gum up the works, but very little you can do to stop the majority from passing their priorities. and that's what house democrats intend to do today. hakim jefferies told me yesterday he's 110% confident they've got the votes. they know the democrats are expecting to stick together on this thing and they will ultimately push this bill across the finish line. it's just a question of when, andrea. >> and peter, the president is once again separating himself from his predecessor. he's not going to have his signature on these relief checks. also no letter enclosed in the checks, envelopes, with his name and taking credit for it. what are white house officials telling you about the delivery of these payments and their rollout when he goes on the road? >> you're exactly right. and obviously, this is a significant priority not just for this white house but for those tens of millions of americans waiting to receive these $1,400 direct payments, most of which will be done through direct deposit. the president saying he expects a large number of americans will get these checks or these direct deposits, as it were, before the end of the month. the treasury department right now is working to expedite that process. as you may know, for those who receive these payments in the first two rounds of covid relief, if you have your bank account information on file with the irs you will get them soonest. for others it might take a little bit longer. obviously in terms of those actual checks, though, as you note, president biden whose name is not going to be on there according to press secretary jen psaki. for president trump his name was stamped on the bottom of the checks. in terms of the toefrt sell this the sales campaign going forward the white house feels very good that even though it's lightningly they're going to get a single republican vote in support of this nearly $2 trillion covid relief bill that it is a bipartisan win, that many republicans or at least members of both parties around the country, americans broadly support it right now. and i would expect you're going to see the president, the vice president, the first lady and others really trying to draw attention to the benefits from this bill, the more than $120 billion for schools, 14 billion or so for vaccination distribution, vaccine distribution, and on some of the other issues that affect real americans like the obamacare premiums that will be going down for many americans, those who rely on obamacare. take a family of four right now, say, they're making $60,000, they're paying $379 a month, that number's going to go down by about $220 a month for that family in terms of their obamacare premiums. and the reason that one's notable is because it's something, andrea, we're going to see them campaign on not in the immediate future alone but over the course of the next couple of years. it expires in two years just in time for those midterms, andrea. >> exactly right. and donna edwards, that puts health care front and center once again as it was in 2018, something that speaker pelosi said was critical to them winning the house, although they lost some seats, they lost their margin. what are they going to do with the more progressive members of the caucus? they're clearly falling in line here, accepting the changes that were made in the senate. but going forward, that certainly does not bode well for some of the more controversial issues like immigration reform and climate change. >> well, i don't know about that, andrea. i mean, i do think that the reason that there is such unanimous support among democrats for this, whether you're a progressive or you're in the middle, is because it delivers so much for the american people. and i think for progressives you look at things like expanding the earned income tax credits, the childcare tax credit, the relief on unemployment and extension of those unemployment benefits, i mean, there's so much in this relief package that progressives have been fighting for for many years. i do think that there still is going to be another fight around how you get the minimum wage across the finish line. but i think that that's one that joe biden is interested in as well as many other democrats. so i don't really see the foreboding. and in fact, i think this kind of win for democrats, for the president and for the american people is one that will put the wind at the sails of democrats going forward and actually clear more of a path for things like immigration and climate change and infrastructure as we look to the future. >> it's really interesting because some people are saying that they think this is the last big win and that from here it's going to be all downhill, that they're not going to be able to manage to hold the coalition together, especially in the senate of course. doug high, it's very popular, as we're just hearing from donna. 70% polling favorability, even higher in some cases. what about republican lawmakers? are they going to get worried about facing the midterms coming up just as this obamacare benefit is going to expire and the fallout from being against something that is that popular? >> i don't think they will, and i'd say two reasons for that. one is as the congresswoman mentioned this has a lot to do with things that progressives and liberals have pushed for that don't have anything to do with covid relief. so it's one of the reasons republicans are by and large opposed to this. every republican member of congress is opposed to it. two, if we're having this conversation back in 2009 when there was a joe biden-led stimulus bill, democrats were saying that it would be electoral doom for republicans to oppose the stimulus bill. every republican in the house, only one republican -- every republican in the house opposed the stimulus bill. only one republican in the senate supported that stimulus bill. and what happened in 2010 elections? 20 months after we passed the stimulus bill. republicans gained 63 seats in the house. so to think -- to be able to say here's what happens in march of the year before an election and that tells you exactly what's going to happen in the elections, it's a fool's errand to do, good or bad. >> except that it's going to expire right before the election. it's a two-year extension. that's my point. so it's got to be front and center in the campaign. garrett, i just want to also note an exchange that played out on the house floor during this debate. democrat stacey plaskett responding to these comments from republican glenn rothman. >> one of the things that hasn't been mentioned here, the increase in the income tax credit for single people has a marriage penalty in it. i bring it up because i know the strength that black lives matter had in this last election. i know it's a group that doesn't like the old-fashioned family. >> how dare you? how dare you say that black lives matter, black people do not understand old-fashioned families? we have been able to keep our families alive for over 400 years and the assault on our families to not have black lives or not even have black families. how dare you say that we are not interested in families in the black community? that is outrageous. that should be stricken down. >> garrett, you rarely see that kind of passion on the house floor. it was really stunning to see. >> it certainly was. and i don't have much to add to the congresswoman's commentary there except to say that i think we have seen over the last couple of months, really since january 6th, relations in the house in particular just continue to deteriorate. the comments from mr. grothman were interesting, i think, i'll say. and the response, quite strong from miss plaskett. that kind of back and forth on the house floor and in the hallways off the floor has frankly gotten more common over the last couple of months with relationships really not what they were in years past here. >> and donna, to the point that plaskett was saying, you know, the stability and sturdiness and resilience of the black family over 400 years despite slavery, despite everything that has happened is one of the signature cultural events in our society. >> yeah, and you know what, i was listening to the debate. and like stacey plaskett, i leapt from my seat because those comments were outrageous. and frankly, the racism and the insult that oozes now from the republican party, not whispered in quiet but right out on the house floor, is really just outrageous. and it was insulting to black families who struggle so much, both keeping families together and strengthened through generations. and i think that the congresswoman really captured that in her remarks and response. and i think it was appropriate to respond and not let something like that sit in the journals of the united states congress. >> we have to leave it there. donna edwards, garrett haake, peter alexander, and doug heye. thanks to all of you for kicking it off. and meanwhile, texas officially ending its mask mandate today. businesses are fully open. we will take you to one of the areas of the state hardest hit by covid to see what people there are saying about these rollbacks. and after the new cdc guidelines for those who have been vaccinated we're seeing some heartwarming family reunions with grandparents across the country. but this one is truly unique. 90-year-old shirley donaldson of maryland used to see her grandson almost every day until the pandemic of course but tuesday he was able to give her the vaccine because he works as an emt. they both say they're ready to get back to normal. >> when this is all over we're going to have a big celebration. >> a big party. >> yeah. we're going to celebrate my 90 years and all of the times we missed. years and all of the times we missed ♪“you're the best” by joe esposito♪ ♪ [triumphantly yells] [ding] don't get mad. get e*trade. 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>> no. i can't. no. i'd rather take care of my grandmother because that's the only grandmother i have. i lost my grandfather like three weeks ago of covid, and i'm like, are you serious? you're really going to open everything after everything that has been happening, a lot of people have been dying recently? i'm like, are you serious? you're being that selfish? >> reporter: last night the mayor here held a roundtable with around a dozen business owners from across the city. all of them vowing to continue to require those face masks and those safety protocols even as they increase capacity. and so that is really the state of things here. andrea? >> priscilla thompson in rio grande city. thank you so much. and joining us now, dr. ashish jha, the dean of course of the brown university school of public health. dr. jha, it's sort of good news/bad news. we've got the trend down in the pandemic. the plateau is finally trending downward again. but concern about variants. and now you see these states like texas opening to 100% restaurant capacity. what concerns you about that? >> yes, andrea, thanks for having me on. this is just the wrong time to do it. and i think we heard that in that last report. there are a couple of things that really worry me right now. a lot of high-risk people like jose's grandmother from the previous report, a lot of high-risk people are not yet vaccinated. and until they are vaccinated i think we absolutely need to make sure that we keep public health measures in place. and then this b.1.1.7, the variant from the uk, is still out there. it's growing in numbers. and i'm happy to see the overall infection numbers coming down, but we're probably a couple of weeks away from that infection, that virus becoming dominant in the united states. again, wrong time to open up right now. we really do need a few more weeks, four, six weeks at the most, in terms of really public health measures until we're in better shape. >> and today president biden is going to announce a new deal securing an additional 100 million j&j doses. that will ensure we're going to have more than enough vaccine for every adult. so where does this position the country in this race to herd immunity against those concerning variants? >> yeah. so i think there are two things here. one is there's a short-term race. really the next four to six weeks as i mentioned. where we've got to get as many high-risk people vaccinated as quickly as possible. i think we'll have the vaccines. i love the idea of more j&j vaccines. the issue will be we will be probably at some point in may, june at the latest, at a point where we have more than enough vaccines for every american adult and more vaccines coming. and the question is what are we going to do about it? and my hope is that we start being able to share those vaccines with the global community because there are a lot of people, high-risk people around the world who have not yet started getting vaccinated. so i'd like for us to be able to get these vaccines out to more people around the world as well. >> i was wondering about that because that is a high priority among all the foreign policy people i talked to. but there still is resistance and lack of access problems here. so you've got communities that aren't on broadband, haven't been able to sign up, the distribution is very disparate different states, lack of equity, profound lack of equity in the number of state locations. so how do you begin to distribute, quote, excess vaccines around the world if you have not properly vaccinated all americans? >> yeah, no, absolutely. i think right now where we are, we still have a supply problem. demand is still outpacing supply. the issues of equity in my mind are really different in the sense that they're not a supply problem. they are we have not done a good enough job of placing vaccination sites in these communities. we have not made it easy for people to sign up. those are things we're going to have to continue working on for weeks and months. but i do think at some point, andrea, as i said, probably april -- i'm sorry, probably may, maybe june, we will have plenty of vaccines and that will no longer be a constraint for us. at that moment i'd like to us shift to a more global stance and really start pushing these vaccines out, keeping enough for every adult in america surely. >> and top health officials have indicated that more, additional cdc recommendations for vaccinated people are coming soon. do you think this will loosen up travel restr