Good morning. I'm

I'm Arjun Singh from the Washington Post and this is the Daily

202 for Monday February 1st. In today's news experts urge faster vaccinations and stepped up efforts to curb the spread of coronavirus variants.

And Republican Representative Adam Kinzinger is starting a pack to challenge the party's embrace of former President Trump.

But first, the big idea. President Joe Biden entered office with an ambitious call for

unity, but as he enters the third week of his presidency he's being confronted

with the political limitations of that goal. With scant Republican support for a major coronavirus relief package backed by Biden

Democrats are planning to utilize a legislative tool known as budget reconciliation

that would allow them to pass the bill on the Senate with just

Democratic support and neutralize the threat of a Republican-led filibuster. The

proposed package includes $1,400 stimulus payments and increase in federal unemployment

aid for rental assistance, a boost in food stamp payments,

an increase of the minimum wage to $15 an hour,

and more than $300 billion in assistance for state and local governments, among other measures.

But Republicans have been quick to bulk at the package's total price tag of $1.9 trillion.

Challenging the president to make good on his calls for bipartisanship,

10 Republican senators announced Sunday that they plan to release a counter-proposal

that would cost a total of $600 billion.

The Post, Sungman Kim, Erica Warner, and Jeff Stein,

report that the senator's proposal would do away with elements of Biden's

package that have drawn Republican scrutiny, including mixing raising the minimum wage to 15 an hour,

and reducing stimulus payments to $1,000 instead of $1,400, while significantly raising the

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