Pelosi is still negotiating with the White House while Senate Republicans push their own stimulus bill.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has set a tight timeline for getting a new stimulus deal done before the election: just 48 hours. During an appearance on ABC’s This Week on Sunday, Pelosi suggested there likely won’t be time to pass a new package prior to November 3 if lawmakers don’t reach an agreement within the next 48 hours. “The 48 [hours] only relates to if we want to get it done before the election, which we do,” she said. Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin have been negotiating over a new stimulus package since the summer, but the effort has been stymied by disagreements over provisions on state and local funding, as well as Republican pushback over the scope of spending. Their talks were also briefly derailed by President Donald Trump, who in early October announced the White House would be ending negotiations, before changing course and demanding they proceed quickly. Drew Hammill, Pelosi’s deputy chief of staff, tweeted Saturday that there are “an array of additional differences” between what Democrats want and what Mnuchin has offered that would need to be worked out in the next two days. Pelosi noted Sunday, for example, that language over funds for coronavirus was an ongoing sticking point. Whether the Tuesday deadline helps spur some much-needed progress, however, is an open question. While House Democrats are negotiating with the White House, Senate Republicans, it seems, are on a parallel track. Even as Pelosi and Mnuchin continue talks about an expansive package — with a recent White House proposal suggesting a bill worth $1.8 trillion — Senate Republicans have been adamant that any stimulus be much smaller. On Saturday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced the Senate would vote on a narrower $500 billion bill this week. This new bill is a reminder that even if Pelosi and Mnuchin reach an agreement, there’s a great deal of uncertainty around whether Senate Republicans would support it, particularly given concerns many GOP lawmakers have expressed about adding to the national debt.
