The United States Senate will begin debate on the new coronavirus bill next week: McConnell

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States Senate will begin debating next week on a fifth coronavirus response bill, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Monday, predicting difficult negotiations with Democrats that they seek broader help than Republicans.

“Next week, we will start a new bill,” McConnell said during an interview with WRVK radio in his home state of Kentucky.

McConnell added that the legislation, which has yet to be tabled, will likely be more controversial than the previous four coronavirus aid bills. Those who injected more than $ 3 trillion into the collapsed economy with a combination of business loans, increased unemployment benefits for workers, and direct payments to families.

“I think we will get there and do something that needs to be done” before Congress begins an August recess, the Republican senator predicted.

But there are also divisions among Republicans, in the White House and in Congress, over the precise direction of the next bill, even if there should be another round of direct payments to individuals and families.

McConnell has spoken of a bill that costs no more than $ 1 trillion, while Democrats in the House of Representatives approved a $ 3 trillion measure in mid-May that McConnell has so far ignored.

McConnell wants to focus on liability protections for companies, schools, and other entities as they reopen their operations, even as coronavirus cases arise in many parts of the United States, including Kentucky.

California imposed new restrictions on businesses Monday as coronavirus hospitalizations soared in the country’s most populous state. Coronavirus infections have increased rapidly in about 40 of the 50 states in the past two weeks, according to a Reuters analysis.

Democrats are pushing for new federal aid to coronavirus-affected state and local governments, which Republicans have resisted.

Lawmakers have also been discussing the extension of special unemployment benefits due in late July, as well as a massive small business loan program that will run through early August.