US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi speaks at her weekly press conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, USA, on August 13, 2020.
Ting Shen | Xinhua News Agency | Getty Images
A group of House Democrats is urging speaker Nancy Pelosi to vote on a bill to extend additional unemployment benefits when the House convenes this weekend.
In a letter Tuesday, lawmakers urged California Democrat and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer to pass legislation that would reinstate the $ 600-a-week unemployment benefit until the coronavirus ends public health, and then phase out if the unemployment of the state fall.
The House, which left Washington for its recession in August before Congress could pass a pandemic relief package, will return on Saturday to vote on a bill that would fund the U.S. Postal Service and reverse changes. Democrats worry will make it harder for Americans to vote by mail in November.
“We owe it to people who are waiting for the whole country to return to work, not only to extend unemployment benefits to help them pay their bills, but to tie these benefits to economic conditions so that workers are not taken hostage by another cliff like this, “Democratic reporters Scott Peters of California, Don Beyer of Virginia and Derek Kilmer of Washington wrote in the letter shared with CNBC. They refer to the expiration of improved unemployment insurance at the end of July.
It is unclear how many other House Democrats will sign on to the letter. The request to Pelosi underscores the pressure that Congress is putting in place to pass more legislation to curb an economic crisis, as Washington is on a standstill on aid. Lifelines such as the unemployment benefits, a federal moratorium on evictions and the application window for Paycheck Protection Program loans for small businesses have all expired.
Democratic leaders and the Trump administration have not restarted the relief talks since they collapsed earlier this month. Pelosi has proposed a more than $ trillion rescue package, but Republicans have proposed a roughly $ 1 trillion plan.
The sides have not found common ground.
“We must try to reach that agreement now,” Pelosi told Politico on Tuesday. She said Democrats “are ready to cut our bill in half to meet the needs right now.”
Her spokeswoman Drew Hammill told CNBC that she was repeating her previous attitude. She said she would start talks again if Republicans doubled their roughly $ 1 trillion relief offer.
NBC News reported Tuesday that the House of Representatives is considering voting on a re-enacted version of the more than $ 3 trillion legislation it passed in May.
Earlier Tuesday, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told CNBC that Democrats had not offered a “reasonable deal.” He said he hoped the return of the House of Representatives this weekend signaled a willingness on the part of Democrats to return to the table.
“Hopefully since Speaker Pelosi returns to attend the post, she will hopefully be more interested in the session,” he said.
Mnuchin added that the GOP “agreed to increase [its offer] in different areas. ”
Democrats have repeatedly said they would not pass a narrow bill to tackle parts of the economic and health crisis and instead wanted a broader approach. Then the Second Chamber announced that it would return to vote on the post office legislation.
Trump has faced political pressure to provide more aid when he is re-elected in November. He signed executive orders this month to temporarily extend federal unemployment benefits of at least $ 300 a week, encourage outbreak protection, maintain existing student loan assistance, and take a tax break.
It will take a few more weeks for most states to pay out unemployment insurance. The existing funding that Trump was able to divert to unemployment benefits, as Congress controls new spending, is expected to last only a handful of weeks thereafter.
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