COVID stimulus talks resume, but deal before year’s end looks like a long shot
The first round of negotiations since Election Day for a new coronavirus stimulus package kicked off Tuesday, but a deal that ticks all the boxes and can get bipartisan approval remains a long shot.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin discussed COVID relief and other end-of-session items, including a $1.4 trillion catchall government funding bill. Mnuchin told reporters, as he arrived at a Senate Banking Committee hearing to assess earlier COVID rescue efforts, that he and Pelosi are focused primarily on the unfinished appropriations bill.
“On COVID relief, we acknowledged the recent positive developments on vaccine development and the belief that it is essential to significantly fund distribution efforts to get us from vaccine to vaccination,” Pelosi said afterward.
“There’s more work to be done,” Mnuchin said on Capitol Hill. “I’d urge Congress to pass something quickly to make sure we get something done.”
Even though all sides agree that more help is needed to boost the sputtering economy, hopes are slim that a deal will be reached before President Trump leaves office.
However, a bipartisan group of congressional moderates put forward Tuesday a proposal worth about $900 billion. It includes a slimmed-down grab bag of measures popular with both parties and is billed as a stopgap measure to keep the economy moving.
In a possible sign that Democrats are ready to compromise, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) pointedly did not reject the proposal out of hand.
“This is a good effort. I haven’t seen all the details ... but when Democrats and Republicans can get together that’s a good thing,” Schumer said.
Hopes are higher for the catchall spending bill, which must be passed by Dec. 11. One key stumbling block is Trump’s opposition to a provision backed by both parties in Congress to rename military bases named after Confederate officers.
“It would be stupidity on steroids if Congress left for Christmas without doing an interim package as a bridge” to the Biden administration, said Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), who was among the Democrats backing the proposal Tuesday.
With News Wire Services
