Washington Senate Republicans on Monday described their fourth phase of federal coronavirus response efforts, implementing their legislative package as enhanced unemployment benefits are beginning to expire for millions of Americans who are out of work due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The proposal is the culmination of talks between the White House and Senate Republicans and represents the attempted openness in negotiations with congressional Democrats, who past a measure of $ 3 billion in May. The text of the bill has yet to be published.
The Senate Republican bill, which is estimated to cost about $ 1 trillion, includes another round of direct payments of $ 1,200 to Americans, with additional support for families with dependent adults and billions of dollars for schools and assistance to Unemployed Americans, although Republicans declined to extend the $ 600 enhanced unemployment benefits expiring for approximately 30 million Americans this weekend. States have until October to adjust unemployment benefits to approximately 70% of income, including state unemployment insurance. Until then, the federal government would provide $ 200 per unemployed person. The bill also provides $ 70 billion for K-12 schools and $ 30 billion for universities.
The proposal has yet to be fully developed with Democrats.
“We are going to work very hard together for the next few days,” White House chief of staff Mark Meadows told reporters Monday after meeting with Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi and the leader of Senate minority Chuck Schumer. “We will certainly be back tomorrow and more discussion on both sides of the Capitol.”
McConnell said the bill is called the HEALS Act, for health, financial assistance, liability protection, and schools, and it is a “tailored, targeted draft that will go directly to the heart of the three distinct crises facing our country.” : children, jobs and health care.
“We have one foot in the pandemic and one foot in recovery,” McConnell said in remarks in the Senate on Monday. “The American people need more help. They need it to be comprehensive and to adapt carefully to this crossroads.”
The Kentucky senator urged fellow Democrats to come to the negotiating table, saying he hopes the Republican Party proposal “will elicit a real, not cheap, response at the partisan level. “But the plan already faces opposition from Senate Democrats, and Schumer called it” totally inadequate “and a” half-hearted legislative proposal. “
Larry Kudlow, President Trump’s top economic adviser, said Sunday that the measure will also include tax credits for small businesses and restaurants. Offer liability protections for companies and others institutions as well as more help for small businesses through the Paycheck Protection Program and for coronavirus testing and treatment, McConnell said.
The proposal will also include money for a new FBI building, which McConnell called a lawsuit from the Trump administration.
“Regarding that proposal, obviously we had to come to an agreement with the administration to get started and they will have to answer the question of why they insisted on that provision. You will have to ask them why they insisted that it be included,” McConnell said.
White House spokesman Judd Deere made a statement.
“As President Trump has said, the FBI desperately needs a new building and this move provides critical funding for this project that would keep the building accountable near the Department of Justice,” said Deere.
Senate Republicans are fractured by the proposal, and some of the more conservative members of the body disagree with its $ 1 trillion price tag.
In “Face the Nation” Sunday, Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas said that he is not on board with the next legislative package and believes the focus should be on an economic recovery plan that offers payroll tax cuts and eases small business taxes and regulations.
While Trump defended the inclusion of a payroll tax cut in the next bill, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said last week that he will not be among the provisions of the next package.
Both Meadows and Mnuchin suggested during separate interviews on Sunday that Congress may have to pass a narrower, more specific bill aimed at providing protection for unemployed Americans first and negotiating a more comprehensive measure in the coming weeks.
But Pelosi has refused to take an unsystematic approach. The extension of enhanced unemployment benefits is likely to be a sticking point in the negotiations, as well as federal aid to state and local governments, to which Democrats have allocated billions.
Pelosi on Monday asked Republican congressional leaders and senior White House officials to meet with her and Schumer to start negotiating and “get the job done.”
“We have been standing ready to negotiate for more than two months. Unfortunately, it is not yet clear whether Republicans will put forward a proposal today,” Pelosi said in a statement, adding that “if Republicans care about working families, this will not. it will take a long time. ” “
“Time is running out,” he continued. “Congress cannot go home without an agreement.”
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