WASHINGTON – Time is running out for Democrats and Republicans to succeed in a relief agreement for COVID-19 after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi set a deadline Tuesday for the two sides to come together to repair urgent benefits before Election Day.
Both sides are suffering to succeed in an agreement a few weeks before the election. Democrats and Republicans are separated by billions of dollars in their proposals and cannot prevail political differences in COVID-19 tests, child tax credit provisions, and state provisions. and local government funding.
Congress passed a comprehensive aid program in March, and many of its provisions have expired. The federal condiment for unemployment benefits ran out in July, airline aid expired in October, and Americans facing an economic recession eagerly await an emergency screening circular.
President Donald Trump ended aid talks earlier this month, calling on Senate Republicans to focus on The Nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, but he changed course and reopened negotiations with Congressional Democrats.
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Here’s the newest thing about the negotiations:
Democrats need about $2. 2 trillion in investment, and the White House has proposed about $1. 8 trillion. Senate Republicans are expected to act Wednesday on a $500 billion plan. Trump said he was looking for more investment than Democrats and their own negotiators offered.
Congressional Democrats have been strong in their $2. 2 trillion proposal defined on a Democrat-controlled House-approved bill in early October. They had proposed a $3. 4 trillion plan that Republicans rejected for being too expensive, so Democrats cut the value of their offer.
Pelosi, D. C. , said Sunday on ABC News ‘This Week’ that either party had until Tuesday to succeed in an agreement if they were looking for a package to follow before the election.
Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, one of the White House’s most sensible negotiators, spoke for about an hour on Monday afternoon, Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill said. “They continued to reduce their differences,” Hammill said, and are expected to return to the ground on Tuesday.
Both sides have adhered to provisions such as the amount of federal unemployment being accumulated and assistance to state and local governments. The Democratic proposal includes $600 a week in unemployment benefits, which Senate Republicans say would deter work. Democrats need $436 billion in state aid. and local governments, many of whom have noticed that their budgets were stretched through the COVID-19 pandemic. Republicans are concerned that such a giant investment allocation will increase the deficit and bail out poorly controlled governments.
Some Democrats have criticized Pelosi’s position, calling on the House to comply with the White House’s $1. 8 trillion offer and use it as a basis for greater attendance if Democrats win the White House, retain the House, and oppose the Senate.
Rep. Ro Khanna, a Democrat for California, said last week in an interview with CNN that he and many other members of Congress have the idea that “what is unacceptable is that we are leaving the agreement. “
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The Position of the White House has changed several times over the following month.
In early October, Trump interrupted months of negotiations and then reversed course, asking for self-sufficient aid expenses to provide a set of checks for Americans and relief for airlines. He reopened negotiations with Democrats and White House negotiators proposed a $1. 8 trillion deal.
The White House has identified that Senate Republicans are less prone to a relief bill, the higher the price. The administration has not made public the main points of its plan or the text of the proposed legislation.
White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, one of the White House’s most sensible negotiators, said Monday: “Senate Republicans have been very eloquent about their lack of a figure that doesn’t even come close to what the president has already achieved. $1. 8 trillion. ” If enough Republican senators would accept an agreement, it’s “at the discretion of leader (Mitch) McConnell,” he said, referring to Kentucky’s Republican majority leader and the Senate.
Trump said he was looking for an even bigger deal than the one proposed by his negotiators.
“I need to do it for more than (Pelosi) needs,” he said Sunday, hoping Senate Republicans will agree with him if an agreement is reached.
The Republican-controlled Senate is about to return from recess and vote this week on two similar bills. Republicans are likely to be short of votes to succeed over Democrats’ objections.
They will settle for an invoice that would reauthorize the payment check coverage program for small business loan cancellation on Tuesday and a $500 billing relief bill on Wednesday. McConnell said Saturday that his plan would come with more unemployment benefits and more than $100 bill for schools and vaccine funding, among other provisions.
Both expenses require the participation of at least 60 senators to break a procedural barrage called systematic obstruction, an unlikely situation given the democrats’ opposition. Senate lineup 53-47 between Republicans and Democrats means at least seven Democrats would have to break up with their party. agree to end the debate and move on to a final vote on a bill.
Republicans are also unlikely to accept more expensive bills. Senator John Thune, RSD, the Republican moment in the Senate, told reporters at the Capitol that it would be difficult to “get enough Republicans to advance a package to $1. 8 trillion or more.
Democrats have refused to pay independent spending unless they get assurances that it would be considered a larger bill and criticized the Republicans’ bailout plan for being too small to respond to the pandemic. Billing $300 in September, but Senate Democrats blocked it.
On Saturday, McConnell left the door open to a broader package negotiated through the White House and Democrats, saying in a statement, “If President Pelosi ever gets the House to succeed in a bipartisan agreement with the administration, the Senate, of course, will. “. “
The Democrats’ plan comes with another $1,200 check circular. The White House has not published the text of his proposal, Trump has said he needs checks for $1,200. The $500 billion plan through Senate Republicans doesn’t come with any more individual payments.
Some lawmakers are pessimistic. Senator Chris Coons, Del. Democrat, told CNBC Monday morning that he would put the chances of a deal before the election in “50/50 at best, frankly,” calling the “frustrating. “
Pelosi told House Democrats in a letter Sunday that he “is optimistic about reaching an agreement before the election. “
Rep. Josh Gottheimer, a New Jersey Democrat, co-chair of the Caucus of Problem Solvers, a bipartisan organization of lawmakers that presented its own framework for coronavirus relief in September, said Monday that it is “unacceptable for this not to happen” before the election.
“We can’t wait until February. This is unacceptable,” he said.
Some members of Congress are not satisfied with the lack of input from key lawmakers in drafting the legislation.
Rep. David Joyce, a Republican for Ohio, a member of the Problem Solver Caucus, criticized the “—- bull” for passing on a plan through party leadership, noting that members of bipartisan problem solvers should propose a framework through negotiating with each other.
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