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WASHINGTON: Congressional top lawmakers reached a deal late at night on the latest major hurdle to a nearly $ 1 trillion COVID-19 financial aid package, clearing the way for voting on Sunday (20 from December).
A Democratic aide said in an email that a deal had been reached Saturday night and compromise language was being finalized to seal a deal that will be released on Sunday.
The breakthrough involved a fight over the Federal Reserve’s emergency powers that was defused by an odd couple: the top Senate Democrat and a senior conservative Republican.
“We’re getting very close, very close,” Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, said early Saturday as he spent much of the day going back and forth with Republican Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania. Toomey had been pushing a provision to shut down the Fed’s loan services that Democrats and the White House say was drafted too broadly and would have tied the hands of the incoming Biden administration.
The COVID-19 legislation has been delayed after months of dysfunction, posturing and bad faith, but the talks turned serious in December when lawmakers on both sides finally faced the deadline for action before leaving Washington for Christmas.
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