House Speaker Nancy Pelosi acknowledges that final passage might have to wait until after Nov. 3.
WASHINGTON – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday downplayed chances of Congress passing a big new economic stimulus bill before the election, even as Democrats voted to block a slimmed-down GOP relief measure in the Senate. The vote in the Senate was 51-44 along party lines, well short of the 60 votes that would have been needed to advance the approximately $500 billion measure. It was practically the same outcome as last month, when Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., tried to advance a nearly identical bill in the Senate. McConnell and Senate GOP leaders largely oppose a giant new spending bill in the range of $2 trillion which President Trump has been demanding and Pelosi has been negotiating with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. With the election now less than two weeks away, the path for getting anything passed beforehand is disappearing, although Pelosi has said that’s her goal. Senate GOP leaders argued that their approximately $500 billion bill was the appropriate response, and would have provided at least some help to needy Americans who’ve been waiting months for more relief from Congress as layoffs mount and coronavirus cases rise. The bill includes new money for small businesses, schools, health care systems and the unemployed, but omits Democratic priorities such as state and local aid – as well as $1,200 stimulus checks for individuals supported by Trump. The legislation “would move us past Speaker Pelosi’s all-or-nothing obstruction and deliver huge support right now for the most pressing needs of our country,” McConnell said ahead of the vote. Democrats and many Republicans have said major problems continue to exist in the economy months after the coronavirus pandemic spread across the United States. But they are divided on what kind of federal response to pursue. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.
