White House officials and Democratic leaders mourned Monday over another package of coronavirus supplies, with help from coups and local governments emerged as the latest obstacle in negotiations.
The two sides disagree on whether states should receive additional funding in the next round of emergency aid – and if so, how much.
Negotiators are trying to close the gap between the $ 1 trillion HEALS Act of the Republican Senate, which does not include new state funding, and the $ 3.4 trillion HEROES House Law, which allocates about $ 1 trillion in new funding for state and local governments.
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The shutdown puts potential trillions of dollars in aid to families, businesses and the U.S. economy at risk, including a fresh round of $ 1,200 incentive checks, additional unemployment benefits for millions of unemployed Americans, $ 100 billion to help rebuild schools and relief for coups and local governments.
There were no signs of a détente on Monday, with each party blaming the other for the stagnant discussions.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, one of the White House’s leading negotiators, called the Democrats’ $ 1 trillion request for states “an absurd number”, saying there was “enough” money available to governments al.
“We are not going to give a trillion dollars to state and local people,” he said in an interview with CNBC on Monday. “That’s just not a reasonable approach.”
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President Trump dismissed Democrats for incest on raising aid for state and local governments.
“So now Schumer and Pelosi want to meet to make a deal,” he wrote in a tweet. “Amazing how it all works, is not it. Where have they been the last 4 weeks when they were ‘hardliners’, and only wanted BAILOUT MONEY for states and cities that are running democratically, that are falling badly? They know my phone number! “
But Democrats warned that without more federal funding, state and local governments – which together employ about 23.2 million essential workers – would be forced to lay off workers and cut essential services.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, speaking from the Senate floor, warned that the “economy is failing” and “state and local governments are cutting back on essential services.”
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“We’re going to see layoffs, and this is not an abstract concept,” Schumer said Sunday during an interview with “This Week of ABC.” “You know, the Republicans say ‘the blue states.’ “A firefighter is a firefighter. A person who drives a bus, a person who picks up the trash – those are important jobs.”
State and local governments, fearing the loss of tax revenue as a result of the virus-induced recession, are lobbying Congress to share billions more in relief. Budget shortfalls could exceed $ 500 billion in just one year in total, the Center for Policy and Budget Priorities reported.
The $ 2.2 trillion CARES law passed in late March allocated $ 150 billion to state and local governments. The Treasury Department’s Inspector General’s Office reported in late July that states had spent about a quarter of that money; however, some government officials said the report had no factor in the money already earmarked for the spending.
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