The White House still pushed ahead with Monday’s planned rollout of the Senate Republicans’ $1 trillion coronavirus relief effort as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi assailed the GOP «disarray» as time-wasting during the crisis.
WASHINGTON — Deadlines looming, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi implored Republicans and the White House on Monday to come quickly to the negotiating table with Democrats over the next coronavirus relief package to prevent unemployment assistance and an eviction moratorium from expiring for millions of Americans.»Time is running out,» Pelosi said. Pelosi invited GOP leaders and White House negotiators to her office after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s planned Monday afternoon release of the Republican’s $1 trillion proposal.»If Republicans care about working families, this won’t take long,» Pelosi said. The Republican leader is poised to try again to unveil his plan after last week’s effort came to an abrupt halt amid infighting with the White House. It’s a long-awaited GOP counter-offer to Pelosi’s $3 trillion effort passed in May. But even as Senate Republicans push ahead, the White House is now suggesting a narrower relief package may be all that’s possible with Friday’s approaching deadlines. The administration’s top negotiators — White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin — spent the weekend on Capitol Hill to put what Meadows described as «final touches» on the Senate package as they also proposed a more modest approach. With the virus death toll climbing and 4.2 million infections nationwide, millions of out-of-work Americans will lose an $600 federal unemployment benefit that is expiring and federal eviction protections for many renters are also coming to an end.
