Bipartisan negotiators plan to unveil more specifics of their proposal on Monday on a $908 billion pandemic relief package, hoping to agree on wording that can appease enough Republicans and Democrats to ensure passage of one final tranche of Covid-19 aid before Congress breaks for the year.
The outline of the plan spurred a flurry of optimism last week when it won the endorsement of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer, and several Republican senators as a basis for fresh talks after a half-year of stalemate.
As part of the group behind the initiative, Louisiana Republican Senator Bill Cassidy said Sunday he was optimistic that Donald Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell “will come on board” with the plan, which he stressed was a short-term boost for a nation that is still recovering from the pandemic.
“This is not a stimulus bill. It’s a relief bill,” he said on Fox News Sunday. “And it’s something for the next three to four months to help those in greatest need.”
Nevertheless, complaints increased as legislators shared discontent with missing elements and items they wished to exclude.
Senator Bernie Sanders said he would reject the compromise because $1,200 individual stimulus checks were missing, something that President-elect Joe Biden wanted to include as well. McConnell and other Republicans are skeptical about the scale of $160 billion in aid assigned to states, which GOP members have criticized as an improper bailout.
“We’re trying to narrow the scope, get the relief out there flowing” to the priority areas both sides can agree on, said Tom Reed, a Republican representative and co-head of the bipartisan Problem Solvers group that’s also backing the package. “We were trying to get to that sweet spot, that common ground.”
Reed said that payments to individuals would blow out the price tag. While House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said that the “lowest we should go to” was the $908 billion figure, it is still well above the approximately $500 billion that Senate Republicans supported in the fall. Pelosi had previously pushed for a $2.4 trillion package.
“It’s essential we provide immediate relief for working families and businesses now,” Biden said in a Friday news conference. But “any package passed in the lame-duck session is not going to be enough overall,” with another package needed in January.
The pandemic relief bill will be added to an omnibus government-funding bill covering appropriations until 2021, Legislative leaders of both parties say. On Dec. 11, a stopgap bill that avoids a government shutdown runs out. Lawmakers are considering another one that will last a week, giving Congress to wrap up both budgets and the coronavirus assistance package until Dec. 18.
Since his election defeat, Trump has largely disengaged from the stimulus talks, leaving it up to Congress to take the initiative. Record numbers of Covid-19 Americans’ deaths have added pressure on lawmakers to act, along with rising indications that the economic rebound is faltering.
Last month, Janet Yellen, Biden’s choice for Treasury Secretary, said that with the Federal Reserve is already “doing about it all they can do” with monetary policy, it was vital for fiscal stimulus to kick in.
Both Democrats and Republicans pointed to a weaker-than-expected November employment gain. The 245,000 gain left employment 9.8 million below pre-pandemic levels, and the ranks of long-term unemployed have risen it’s highest since 2013.
“One hopes that it also changes the politics somewhat, to move people toward getting over the finish line” on stimulus, said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, an economic adviser to John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign who’s now president of the American Action Forum, a center-right policy organization, referring to the November jobs report. “That hasn’t happened yet, but I think these data should encourage lawmakers to get a deal.”
The two most sensitive areas said Reed is the size of assistance to states and coronavirus-related liability coverage for corporations, which Republicans want, but Democrats have resisted.
There are also some barriers to completing the 2021 spending legislation, including Trump’s demand for border-wall funds and controversy about whether $12.5 billion in health funding for Veterans Affairs should be allowed as an emergency above the budget limit.
According to Senate Appropriations Chairman Richard Shelby, the giant omnibus has also been troubled in recent days by as many as 300 minor policy disputes. Among these were federal protections for the sage grouse, biomass energy policy, and support for anti-racism training by the police.
Congress is on track to pass a one-week stopgap bill this week to avert a U.S. government shutdown on Saturday, regardless of the lingering disputes.
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