By David Morgan and Susan Cornwell

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Democrats in Congress prepared on Tuesday to take the first steps toward fast-track passage of U.S. President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package – and without Republican support if necessary.

A fiscal 2021 budget measure, with coronavirus aid spending instructions, was headed for preliminary votes that would help unlock a legislative tool needed for Democrats to enact Biden’s package swiftly in the face of Republican opposition.

Republicans have pushed back on Biden’s $1.9 trillion price tag, which follows $4 trillion in COVID-19 aid last year.

On Monday, Biden met with 10 Senate Republicans to discuss their own scaled-back $618 billion plan. He told lawmakers it did not go far enough to address a pandemic that has killed nearly 444,000 people in the United States.

Jared Bernstein, a member of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, said on Tuesday that the Republican proposal fell far short in a number of areas, including funding to reopen schools. Republicans called for spending $20 billion on schools, compared with Biden’s proposal for $170 billion.

“We think that’s what it’s going to take to reach people,” Bernstein told CNN.

Biden’s package faces a potential Republican roadblock in the 100-member Senate, which is divided 50-50 but requires a 60-vote threshold to pass most legislation.

The budget resolution, if approved by the House of Representatives and Senate, would activate a legislative tool called reconciliation, allowing for Senate passage with 51 votes that would include 48 Democrats, two independents who caucus with them, and Vice President Kamala Harris.

It would mark the first time congressional Democrats had used the maneuver to flex their legislative muscle since winning razor-thin control of the Senate in two runoff elections last month in Georgia. They already control the House.

The House was expected to take a procedural vote on the budget resolution during votes tentatively scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. EST (2330 GMT). Schumer also announced a Tuesday afternoon vote in the Senate on opening debate on the budget resolution.

Schumer insisted he wanted the COVID-19 aid effort to be bipartisan, even though the budget process being used provides the legislative means for his fellow Democrats to move ahead without Republicans if need be.

“We’re talking about using the budget process to speed the production and distribution of a vaccine that everyone champions and everyone knows is the key to ending the crisis,” he said.

(Reporting by David Morgan and Doina Chiacu; additional reporting by Susan Heavey and Susan Cornwell; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Howard Goller)