- A second round of stimulation for coronaviruses will focus on returning children to schools, improving hiring and financing the development of the coronavirus vaccine, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Monday.
- The Republican Party plans to spend “another trillion dollars” on its next fiscal package, Mnuchin said, much less than the $ 3 trillion measure passed by House Democrats in May.
- Mnuchin did not specify whether the expansion to unemployment benefits would be renewed after the July deadline, instead he said Republicans are looking for a “technical solution” to the program.
- Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a letter Monday that Democrats “will rally again if we must” should Republicans pass a largely partisan bill.
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Republicans’ plan for a second fiscal package aims to return children to schools, boost hiring, and finance the development of the coronavirus vaccine, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Monday.
President Donald Trump and Republican lawmakers met Monday to resolve their next stimulus proposal. Congress is setting a fast-approaching deadline to pass new spending legislation, as aid programs near expiration and an increase in the number of infections threaten a deeper recession.
Republicans plan to spend “another trillion dollars” on the upcoming bill, Mnuchin told reporters at the meeting. The spending package will focus primarily on “children, jobs, and vaccinations,” he said.
“We will have tax credits for PPE, for safe work environments, and we will have great incentives, money for states for education, for schools that can safely open and do education,” added the Treasury Secretary.
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In addition to approaching an August recess, lawmakers are also struggling to address the upcoming depletion of expanded unemployment benefits. The $ 600-a-week addition set forth in the first congressional bill will expire in late July.
Mnuchin did not specify whether the expansion will be renewed and instead said Republicans are looking for a “technical solution” to the unemployment insurance program.
“We will make sure we don’t pay people more money to stay home than to go to work,” Mnuchin said.
The Treasury Secretary is likely to repeat his role as a key intermediary between the White House and Democratic lawmakers through stimulus negotiations. The talks have largely been held in separate games in recent weeks. House Democrats approved a $ 3 trillion package in May, but Senate Republicans have ignored the bill, instead seeking to keep total spending at about $ 1 trillion.
House of Representatives minority leader Kevin McCarthy told reporters on Capitol Hill that the bill will include a payroll tax cut, according to Bloomberg. The measure has been frequently demanded by President Donald Trump, but it lacks the full support of Republican lawmakers, and Democrats are mostly against its approval.
McCarthy said another round of stimulus payments will also appear in the bill, though Republicans have not yet detailed who will be eligible for the checks. While Democrats have called for a second round of payments to resemble the first, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has indicated that Republicans will write checks only for those who earn less than $ 40,000.
McConnell also plans to advance liability limits for schools, charities, businesses, and healthcare workers. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said the policy “would grant legal immunity to negligent corporations, nursing homes or others who do not take reasonable steps to prevent the spread of the virus.”
“During the debate over the CARES Act, it was our unity against a partisan and Republican first draft that allowed for significant improvements,” Schumer wrote in a letter Monday. “I hope we don’t have to repeat that process. But we will stay together again if necessary.”
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