Republicans in the White House and Senate are working to finalize a coronavirus relief package before Monday’s implementation.
treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin
Steven Terner MnuchinMnuchin, Meadows make a rare weekend trip to Capitol Hill as the Republican Party prepares the White House coronavirus package, Congress talks about the upcoming coronavirus relief bill as COVID-19 continues to emerge On The Money: Congress Prepares for Fight as Unemployment Cliff Looms | Wave of evictions could be coming for the nation’s tenants | Chamber approves spending package of 9.5B PLUS and chief of staff of the White House Mark Meadows
Mark Randall MeadowsMnuchin, Meadows makes a rare weekend trip to Capitol Hill as the Republican Party prepares the White House coronavirus package, Congress talks about the upcoming coronavirus relief bill as COVID-19 continues to increase Mnuchin puts jumpy hawks nervous about relief law talks MORE We returned to the Capitol on Sunday for a second day of meetings with Republican Party staff as they work to close the next proposal.
When he left the Capitol, Meadows told reporters that “they had been working with just a little bit of technical language” and had reached “an agreement in principle.”
“We have some modifications where we are looking for clarity, but we have narrowed them down to a handful that will hopefully resolve in the next hour or so,” he added.
He also said he hoped the remaining pending issues would be “resolved” before Republicans unveiled their package on Monday.
“It is only a handful of elements where we believe that a phone call here and there should be able to resolve it,” he added.
Mnuchin added that “there were no pending problems,” but warned that “there is a language that people are reviewing.”
Senate Republicans are expected to present their roughly $ 1 trillion proposal on Monday after a play on words last week amid ongoing negotiations with the White House on key package provisions.
“The administration has requested additional time to review the details, but we will present this proposal early next week. We have agreement in principle on the form of this package,” McConnell said from the Senate of the decision.
The package is expected to include $ 105 billion for schools, $ 16 billion in new money tests, more flexibility on how states and local governments can use $ 150 billion allocated by Congress in March, and a shield of five years against coronavirus claims, except in cases of negligence or willful misconduct.
It is also expected to include a second round of stimulus checks. Mnuchin has said he will reflect the language in the March bill that provided a one-time $ 1,200 check to people making up to $ 75,000 per year. The amount of the check was reduced to an income limit of $ 99,000 per year for an individual, where it was completely eliminated.
Republicans are also expected to reject the $ 600 per week increase in unemployment benefits for the March bill, which began to expire on Saturday.
Instead, they propose a system that would match unemployment benefits with approximately 70 percent of what a person was doing before being fired, according to Mnuchin.
States have warned that the transition to the new system could take weeks or months, given the outdated technology in many offices. Some Republican lawmakers have said there should be a transition period during which the federal government will provide a fixed amount per week, potentially $ 200.
Both Mnuchin and Meadows declined to go into detail about the language of unemployment on Sunday, beyond providing a 70 percent match.
The introduction of the Republican proposal is expected to mark the start of bipartisan negotiations, which are likely to be largely carried out by administration officials who move between leadership offices.
Meadows and Mnuchin met with the Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi
Nancy Pelosi 7-year-old John Lewis’s great-nephew calls civil rights icon ‘my hero’ from the White House, Congress talks about upcoming coronavirus relief bill as COVID-19 continues to grow The family honors John Lewis at the monument in his hometown MORE (D-Calif.) And Democratic leader of the Senate Charles Schumer
Chuck Schumer Republican Senators push for stimulus checks to be carried out on nearly 2 million people excluded from the American White House, Congress talks about the upcoming coronavirus relief bill as COVID-19 continues to increase Schumer announces that Blue Jays will play the season in Buffalo MORE (DN.Y.) last week, but both sides acknowledged that they were waiting for the text from the Senate Republicans.
Congress is on a tight schedule to draft a deal without the talks extending to the August recess.
The House was expected to leave Friday, July 31 until early September. But leader of the majority of the house Steny Hoyer
Steny Hamilton HoyerMuchuchin, Meadows makes rare weekend trip to Capitol Hill as GOP prepares Pelosi coronavirus package, McConnell announces John Lewis will go to bed in McCarthy state says Ocasio-Cortez should accept Yoho’s apology MORE (D-Md.) He warned members to keep their travel plans for the first week of August flexible, and Pelosi reiterated on Sunday that lawmakers could not leave Washington, DC, without an agreement.
“We can’t go home without” a deal, “he told CBS’s” Face the Nation. ” “It is very sad that people have this uncertainty in their lives.”
Meadow and Mnuchin, during separate television interviews on Sunday, raised the idea of passing a “skinny” relief bill that would pair the unemployment piece with one or two other issues, such as school financing and liability protection.
“I see that we can provide unemployment insurance, perhaps a withholding credit to prevent people from being displaced or returned to the workplace, by helping with our schools,” Meadows told ABC “This Week.”
“If we can do that along with liability protection, maybe we will propose and approve it, as we can negotiate the rest of the bill in the coming weeks,” he added.
Pelosi previously rejected the idea of breaking the fifth coronavirus bill to pieces. Meadows told reporters late last week that he was raising the idea without Pelosi or McConnell weighing in first.
“We cannot fragment this,” Pelosi told reporters late last week.
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