Senate Votes Against Minimum Wage Increase During Pandemic as Biden’s Economic Plan Moves Forward

“It’s not the last bill we’ll pass,” Ms. Pelosi said. “This is the rescue package.”

During the voting, Ms. Collins, who led a group of 10 senators who met with Mr. Biden this week with hopes of persuading him to embrace a smaller, $618 billion stimulus package, released a letter to the White House that argued that Mr. Biden was overestimating the money needed to reopen schools and help state and local governments.

In an interview, she urged the president to take advantage of money already approved in previous stimulus packages.

“There are hundreds of billions of dollars in unspent funds,” Ms. Collins said.

Democrats were expected to introduce legislation and begin committee debate in the House next week, aiming to move the plan through the budget reconciliation process. They could then circumvent a filibuster, which can only be overcome with 60 votes, and instead pass with a simple majority, allowing the package to be enacted without Republican votes.

While details remain in flux, people familiar with the plan said it would largely mirror Mr. Biden’s $1.9 trillion proposal. The most significant deviation, they said, was likely to be lowering the cost of providing direct payments to Americans.

At Mr. Biden’s insistence, the maximum amount of those payments would remain at $1,400. But Democrats and the administration are discussing phasing them out for higher-income Americans at a faster rate than the $600 payments that Congress approved in December, meaning those earning more would get smaller checks.

Democrats could further reduce the cost of the plan by lowering the income threshold at which the payments begin to phase out. Mr. Biden has proposed beginning the phaseout for individuals earning $75,000 a year and couples earning $150,000 a year. Lawmakers are discussing reducing those thresholds to $50,000 for individuals and $100,000 for couples, though they have not made a final decision on whether to do so.

Among the Republican ideas that appeared to gain some traction with the White House was a proposal from Senator Mitt Romney of Utah, who unveiled a plan to send payments of up to $1,250 per month to families with children, in an effort to encourage Americans to have more children while reducing child poverty rates.