House Democrats have proposed keeping the $600 benefit in place through January, but the program is set to expire later this week.
WASHINGTON — A fraught showdown over the next coronavirus relief bill got under way Monday as Senate Republicans unveiled a $1 trillion package and congressional Democrats sat down with top White House officials. All parties faced a tight deadline for a breakthrough as expanded jobless aid benefits are set to expire later this week. The prospects for a bipartisan deal remained far from certain as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N. Y., met with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to begin formal negotiations. At the same time elsewhere in the Capitol, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and some of us his top lieutenants were briefing reporters on the package of bills assembled as the GOP negotiating position with Democrats. “The American people need more help, they need it to be comprehensive and they need it to be carefully tailored to this crossroads,” McConnell said. “That is what this Senate majority has assembled.” But the GOP legislation contains a number of provisions not directly related to the coronavirus, including $1.8 billion for construction of a new FBI headquarters in Washington, D. C. President Trump has taken a personal interest in this project, but White House officials have not stipulated why they believe the language needed to be inserted in the coronavirus bill. Critics have alleged Trump is trying to keep the FBI building at its current location, which is diagonal from a Trump hotel property in downtown D. C. The Trump administration previously squashed a plan to relocate the FBI building to the suburbs, which could leave the lot near the Trump hotel open for development. “That’s a good question,” said Senate Appropriations Chairman Richard Shelby, R-Ala., when asked what the FBI project had to do with the coronavirus. He said the administration had sought its inclusion. McConnell and his team worked for days to try and put together a $1 trillion package that could unite Republicans in a way that would strengthen their negotiating power with Democrats, but there were signs on Monday that Republicans remain split over how to proceed. Congress already pumped $3 trillion into the economy in March and April, a level that many Republicans believe is sufficient. “There is significant resistance to yet another trillion dollars,” said Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas. “The answer to these challenges will not simply be shoveling cash out of Washington, the answer to these challenges will be getting people back to work. And as it stands now, I think it’s likely that you’ll see a number of Republicans in opposition to this bill and expressing serious concerns.” Bipartisan negotiations had been delayed because Democrats were waiting for the White House and Senate Republicans to unify behind a single plan, which was initially supposed to happen last week but finally occurred Monday afternoon, although it rolled out as a series of multiple bills rather than one unified package. The White House and Senate Republican plan calls for around $1 trillion in new spending, while the House Democrats have coalesced around a $3 trillion plan they passed in May. “I’m bitterly disappointed and frustrated by their delay and by the inadequacy of their product,” Schumer said.
