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“At this point, we still have disagreements on many priorities, and Democrats are awaiting the Administration’s language on various provisions as negotiations continue on the full amount of funding,” Pelosi wrote in a letter Saturday to House Democrats. .
In a conference call Saturday with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, Senate Republicans criticized the $ 1.8 trillion offer the White House made to the President Pelosi, according to various sources.
They went through a number of GOP concerns, such as state and local funding, as well as the overall price.
While the sentiment was that talks with Pelosi should continue, it was clear that the White House plan had virtually no chance of being approved by the GOP-controlled Senate, the sources said.
Sen. Rick Scott, a Florida Republican, told Mnuchin and Meadows, flatly, “I don’t get it” when it came to why the White House was going its current path, according to two sources familiar with the call. Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn said it would be a “death sentence” for the Republican Senate majority and would serve to “deflate” the base just three weeks before the election.
Senator Lamar Alexander, one of the conference’s most balanced and respected members, told Meadows and Mnuchin that he just “didn’t feel like” spending the number that floated in the White House.
And Senator Mike Lee, a Republican from Utah, stressed that if a deal is reached, it could completely bury the focus on Trump’s Supreme Court nomination, which should be the focus of both the White House and Republicans. Senate, Lee said.
Meadows and Mnuchin indicated that they would give Trump the feedback.
“All of you will have to come to my funeral” after turning over that information, Meadows told them after receiving all the criticism, according to sources familiar with the call. Mnuchin agreed that they would receive him rather badly.
Republican senators were unmoved by those comments.
On the call, several Republican senators harshly criticized Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, saying he had gone too far in demanding that Congress pass blanket economic relief and that he went out of his way by making his demands public, according to two sources.
The president said Friday that he would like to see a bigger stimulus than the one currently being rolled out by Democrats or his administration, but Republicans in Congress continue to oppose a price tag of more than $ 1 trillion or any amount of new aid. Senate Republicans have rallied behind the $ 500 billion price tag.
Pelosi has repeatedly argued that the actual legislative language, and where that language directs funding, has become the most critical aspect of any deal, particularly pushing for funding for states and localities that have significant budget deficits, a point key to conflict. Trump administration.
In her letter Saturday, Pelosi dismissed Trump’s proposal for wanting “more money at his discretion to award or withhold, rather than agreeing to language that prescribes how we honor our workers, squash the virus, and put money in the pockets of employees. workers “.
The Democratic leader said that “despite these unaddressed concerns,” she remains “hopeful” that events on Friday will bring them closer to agreeing on an aid package.
This story has been updated with additional news on Saturday.
