Suggesting a narrower pandemic relief package might be all that is possible, the White House still pushed ahead with yesterday’s planned rollout of the US Senate Republicans’ US$1 trillion effort as US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi assailed the Republican “disarray” as time-wasting during the crisis.
The US administration’s chief negotiators — White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and US Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin — spent the weekend on Capitol Hill to put what Meadows described as “final touches” on the relief bill that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was expected to bring forward yesterday afternoon.
“We’re done,” Mnuchin said as he and Meadows left Capitol Hill on Sunday after meeting with Republican Party staff.
However, looming deadlines might force them to consider other options.
By Friday, millions of out-of-work Americans would lose a US$600 federal unemployment benefit that is expiring, and federal eviction protections for many renters are also coming to an end.
US President Donald Trump’s standing is at one of the lowest points of his term, according to a new AP-NORC poll.
“They’re in disarray and that delay is causing suffering for America’s families,” Pelosi said.
Pelosi panned the Trump administration’s desire to trim the US$600 weekly unemployment boost to about 70 percent of pre-pandemic wages.
She also said she opposes tackling a relief package in piecemeal fashion.
With the virus death toll climbing and 4.2 million infections nationwide, the administration officials converged on the Capitol to revive the Republican package that unraveled last week. Republican senators and the White House are at odds over various items, including how to cutback the jobless benefit without fully doing away with it.
Meadows said the White House was “looking for clarity” on a “handful” of remaining issues with Republicans, but they had yet to talk to McConnell.
“We have an agreement in principle,” he said.
Mnuchin and Meadows earlier on Sunday said that narrower legislation might need to be passed first to ensure that enhanced unemployment benefits do not run out for millions of Americans.
They cited unemployment benefits, money to help schools reopen, tax credits to keep people from losing their jobs, and lawsuit protections for schools and businesses as priorities.
“We can move very quickly with the Democrats on these issues,” Mnuchin said.
However, negotiations with Democrats have yet to begin with, billions of US dollars at stake and deadlines near.
Separately, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said that a federal eviction moratorium on millions of rental units, due to expire at the end of this month, would be extended.
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