Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell ousted the Senate for the rest of the month without a deal on a new relon-packed coronavirus, saying on the floor that if a deal is reached, senators will be notified at least 24 hours to return to Washington for a vote.
The collapse in talks could deny benefits to up to 30 million Americans who are currently accumulating unemployment. Moody’s recently estimated that the failure to act on a new economic bailout could force another 4 million people out of work and contract the economy by another 4%.
“If the speaker of the House of Representatives and the minority leader of the Senate decide to finally put forward another rescue package for workers and for families, then it would take bipartisan consent to meet for legislative matters rather than plan,” McConnell said in making the announcement Thursday, Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Democratic Senate Leader Chuck Schumer.
He added that he hoped the First Chamber would be able to “act soon”.
However, any senator could block progress for Labor Day, not just Democrats. In fact, about 20 Republicans have made it clear that they believe the federal legislature has done enough to tackle the pandemic.
“From my point of view, the distribution in the talks is very good news,” Sen said. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., A mountaineer, last Friday. “It’s very good news for future generations.”
McConnell, who even got an unusually tough re-election campaign in Kentucky in November, has made it clear he is breaking with the hawks. “The American people need more help. Coronavirus is not ready with our country, so Congress cannot be ready to help our people,” he said Thursday on the floor.
McConnell had kept the legislative session open for the week, which would normally have been the first of the annual congressional recession in August, in the hope that lawmakers and the administration could reach a two-party deal for a fifth bill for coronavirus. The abrupt disadvantage, which lasts until September 8, the day after Labor Day, indicates that negotiations have not progressed since the collapse last week.
For its part, the Democratic-led House ended its session on August 4, after passing a sweeping $ 3 trillion rescue package in May. First Republicans rejected that bill as unrealistic, but waited until the end of July when they introduced a $ 1 trillion plan that fired Democratic leaders as non-starters, with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi saying it “not enough” was to tackle the ongoing twin economic and public health crisis.
But Republican senators were not even close to a unanimous agreement among themselves, with fiscal hawks taking tough stances against extra monthly payments and rejecting extended unemployment benefits.
Under this political pressure, President Trump, already on vacation at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf resort, last Saturday issued a series of four executive guidelines aimed at providing an additional $ 400 in weekly unemployment benefits, $ 200 less than under the previous bill.
That order, however, requires states to contribute 25% of the $ 400, and some states governed by Republicans have not promised to do so. Many experts have said that Trump’s new guidelines could take weeks or months to flow money, and the funds would last less than two months.
Shortly after Trump signed the guidelines, Pelosi and Schumer issued a statement blowing the orders as “unworkable, weak and narrow”, adding that in addition to reducing unemployment benefits, the tax cuts “the Social Security and Medicare of putting seniors at risk. “
More than 30 million Americans were unemployed at the end of July, and many are worried about the prospect of losing the extra weekly $ 600 offered by the former coronavirus relief bill – a bonus that Republicans claim removes incentives to work back, although recent studies have shown otherwise.
A July study by the Aspen Institute found that the severe threat of dismissal could make 20 million Americans homeless by the end of September.
Mail voting agreement adds another twist. House Democrats demanded $ 25 billion in support for the U.S. Postal Service and $ 3.5 billion in additional election funding as part of the next phase of coronavirus relief, but Trump has promised not to approve the emergency funds.
On Thursday, President Fox Business announced that he would continue to block assistance to the Postal Service, publicly acknowledging that doing so would undermine the states’ plans to expand post-election voting day. .
“They need that money to run the post office so it can take all those millions of votes,” Trump said. “If they do not receive those two items, that means you can not have universal mail-in-vote. Because they are not provided.”
“It’s a standstill,” White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow told CNBC on Thursday.
Chamber member Nancy Pelosi made the case for postal service funding, relief, food aid and expanded rapid COVID testing at her weekly press event, and Republican Republicans as furious and declaring flat out that “people will die” if the debate drags on next month .
“Maybe you missed them for someone who caused a scandal,” she said when asked if the smaller rescue package proposed by Republicans would be worth the effort to prevent weeks of gridlock. “That is not the case.”
