Both parties agree a deal has to get done. But nobody knows what it will look like or when it will come together.
The number of coronavirus cases is surging, and congressional leaders are squabbling. It’s an ominous foreshadowing of the coming partisan clash over the next relief package.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) are straddling opposite sides of a multi-trillion dollar divide, with neither currently willing to budge.
Congressional leaders from both parties privately believe they’ll reach a deal at some point: the stakes are too high for the nation’s health and economic well-being, not to mention Election Day is quickly approaching. But it may take several weeks of difficult negotiations — and public posturing — to strike an accord.
Senate Republicans are expected to unveil their own roughly $1 trillion proposal next week, a plan far narrower than the $3 trillion-plus bill pushed through the House by Democrats two months ago. Apart from cost, the parties are still far apart on key issues, including whether or how to extend a boost in unemployment insurance benefits set to expire in the coming days.
McConnell and Pelosi haven’t even begun private conversations about the fifth relief package, according to sources close to both offices. Instead, the two leaders used separate press events Wednesday to highlight their conflicting positions.
During public remarks in Cynthiana, Ky., McConnell said he’d spoken to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin Wednesday morning and would likely offer a proposal next week for discussion with his GOP colleagues and Democrats. McConnell is insisting that any next package prioritize liability protection for employers, a demand he’s been making for weeks to Democratic frustration. Senate Republicans are also eyeing providing financial incentives for schools to fully reopen.
“I expect to begin to lay out to my colleagues in the Senate a proposal,” McConnell said. In addition to liability provisions, “kids in school, jobs and healthcare are likely to be the focus of the bill.”
A few hours later Wednesday, Pelosi sought to claim an initial victory by arguing Republicans have significantly shifted their thinking since calling for a “pause” when the House passed its bill in May. But the California Democrat also made clear what McConnell is proposing right now isn’t nearly good enough.
“There’s a recognition that there’s going to be a bill,” Pelosi told reporters. “They went from zero to now $1.3 [trillion]. That’s not enough, we need more. But we see the public evolution of their thinking.”
Pelosi said Democrats’ behemoth bill largely doesn’t need to be adjusted, even as coronavirus cases have skyrocketed in a majority of states over the last month.
