Senate Republicans are in conflict with the White House about whether to include new money for coronavirus testing in the next aid package, which lawmakers estimate could increase to $ 2 trillion once Democratic demands are included.
Intraparty tension in the Republican Party could give Democrats influence as congressional discussions intensify in the next two weeks.
White House negotiators led by the Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin
Steven Terner MnuchinTrump Says He Could Not Sign the Coronavirus Bill Without On The Money Payroll Tax Cuts: Improved Unemployment Insurance Likely Expires During COVID-19 Aid Talks | Trump says he will not issue national mask mandate | Mnuchin: Most affected companies should be able to get a second PPP payment The travel industry demands specific relief amid a coronavirus pandemic MORE and chief of staff of the White House Mark Meadows
Mark Randall MeadowsTrump says he couldn’t sign the coronavirus bill without the payroll tax cut Trump makes the White House the backdrop for political events. You want to keep the size of the initial Republican offer at around $ 1 trillion. They refuse to include another $ 25 billion for the COVID-19 tests because the states have not yet spent much of the money that Congress has already appropriated for the tests. Congress allocated $ 25 billion to test in the $ 484 billion provisional aid package that Congress approved in April.
Senator Roy Blunt
Roy Dean BluntGOP Senators Sound the Alarm When Coronavirus Rises in Home States Republican Senate Proposes Five-Year Shield Against Coronavirus Lawsuits Hillicon Valley: Facebook Considers Political Advertising Ban | Senators Raise Concerns About Civil Rights Audit | Amazon reverses by telling workers to remove TikTok MORE (Mo.), one of the Republican senators negotiating with the administration, said he has no more money for the tests in the next aid package makes no sense.
“I just think that’s wrong,” he said when asked Monday about the administration’s opposition to billions of dollars in additional test money. “We are in the process of developing tests that would be easier to perform and that would respond more quickly. If you’re going to get people back to school and work, doing that kind of testing is really important. “
President of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Work and Pensions Lamar Alexander
Andrew (Lamar) Lamar Alexander Alexander says Lewis helped Tennesseeers “better understand the meaning of equal opportunity” Will Congress provide relief for the sick child care sector? Republican Party coronavirus proposal takes shape MORE (R-Tenn.), Who is negotiating with the White House, said: “My opinion is that we must do what is necessary to make sure we have adequate evidence.”
Senate Republicans fear losing control of their majority in the November election and see evidence as an important political and political issue. They want to provide enough money to push the tests until the end of the year.
Senate Majority Whip John Thune
John Randolph’s proposal for the ThuneGOP coronavirus takes shape. United States Praises British Ban on Huawei from China After Republican Senators of Pressure Campaign Express Confidence in Senate Uphill Battle MORE (RS.D.) told reporters on Monday that there should be more money for the tests.
Thune said he supports “anything that helps open schools in the fall.”
“I think testing helps with that, so I am in favor of whatever it takes to get enough evidence to safely open schools and other aspects of our economy,” he said. “We need to do better than we are, and I think that will be addressed in this bill.”
Senator Deb Fischer
Debra (Deb) Strobel Fischer Bipartisan Senators Seek Funding for Pork Producers Forced to Slaughter Livestock Georgia’s Top Republican Endorses Senate Bill Doug Collins Senators Balance Coronavirus Action with Health Risks MORE (R-Neb.), Advisor to the Senate Republican leadership team, said: “I think the evidence needs to be increased so we can handle it.”
“It is important that we have more evidence to determine where the hot spots are and to be able to address them,” he added.
A Congressional official familiar with the negotiations said the White House is concerned about keeping the cost of the initial Republican coronavirus relief proposal low, as it is likely to increase substantially during negotiations with Democrats.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi
Nancy PelosiWallace confronts Trump in “bad tweets” about him and Fox News Pelosi, Blumenaur condemns Trump’s “egregious abuses of power” against Oregon protesters Graham over Lewis’ death: “He lived a consistent life” MORE (D-Calif.) And minority leader of the Senate Charles Schumer
Chuck Schumer How a Progressive Populist Appears to Have Overthrown Engel MJ Hegar Wins Democratic Battle to Challenge John Cornyn Dunford Withdraws from Consideration to Chair Coronavirus Oversight Panel MORE (DN.Y.) support a $ 3 billion aid package approved by the House in May.
“The administration is trying to understand why we believe states need more money considering there is still money they haven’t spent on the CARES Act,” said a Republican congressional official who explained the dispute over the new test funding.
“Our opinion is that we are looking to the future and see what will be needed in the next four or five months, until the end of the year. And we think it makes sense to finance it, “added the source.
Mnuchin and Meadows met with Republican Senate negotiators on Monday night, and they plan to brief the entire Senate Republican Party conference over lunch on Tuesday.
Meadows didn’t seem enthusiastic about adding more money for the tests when asked on the way to a meeting with Republican Senate negotiators.
“That will be part of the discussion, I’m sure,” he said.
A senior administration official noted that Senate Republicans are asking for another $ 25 billion in evidence, the same amount that lawmakers allocated in late April when Congress approved an interim package of $ 484 billion to replenish funds for the Payment Check Protection Program. Nearly $ 13 billion of those funds remain unspent, including almost all of the $ 1 billion delivered directly to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the official said.
While $ 10 billion has been obligated to state, local and tribal governments for testing, less than $ 100 million has been spent, according to the official.
The disagreement over the new test funding comes at a time when Republican lawmakers are breaking with White House discussion points about the prospects for the crisis.
Leader of the Senate majority Mitch McConnell
Addison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnell Democrats Call McConnell to Implement Voting Rights Act in Honor of Lewis Trump Mocks Drive to Rename Fort Bragg: “Shall We Name Him After Reverend Al Sharpton ? ” Republican Party seeks to reduce unemployment improvement to 0-0 per week: MORE report (R-Ky.), Who is ready for reelection this fall, warned constituents during the July recess that the coronavirus will not “magically go away.”
“I think the direct conversation everyone should understand is that this is not going to go away,” he said.
Comments seemed to be delayed President Trump
Donald John Trump Kanye West says Harriet Tubman “never freed slaves” at rally Trump-Afghanistan deal passes key period, but evasive Republican peacekeepers in worst-hit states separated by COVID response -19 MOREThe prediction, repeated during a recent interview with Chris Wallace
Christopher (Chris) WallaceTrump on whether he will accept the election results in November: “I have to see” Trump scoffs at pushing to change the name of Fort Bragg: “Shall we name him after Reverend Al Sharpton?” Some Republicans dig against the mask mandate as the bipartisan consensus in favor grows MORE Fox News, that the virus “will disappear”.
Senate Republicans are increasingly concerned about the nation’s ability to track infections as the number of coronavirus cases has skyrocketed in southern and midwestern states, such as Arizona, Florida, Texas, Michigan, and Ohio.
McConnell’s home state, Kentucky, averages more than 500 new cases per day, an increase of more than 200 percent compared to two weeks ago, according to data analyzed by NPR.
Former White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney
Mick Mulvaney Republican senators sound the alarm as coronavirus increases in home states. Long waits for test results lead to new COVID-19 fears former Trump chief of staff will hit coronavirus efforts: “We still have a testing problem” MORE He warned in an opinion piece for CNBC last week that “we still have a testing problem in this country.”
The White House is also opposed to $ 10 billion in new funding for CDC and foreign assistance to combat the spread of the coronavirus in poor countries.
“There is international assistance, they don’t want to do anything about it,” said the Republican congressional official.
Republican lawmakers have suggested using most of the funds requested by CDC for vaccine distribution.
But administration officials argue that Trump has already agreed to fund Operation Warp Speed to distribute the vaccine and that the CDC’s Republican request for additional money would essentially pay for the vaccine’s distribution twice. The administration believes that the CDC has more than enough money, and there is resistance to sending billions of dollars more to an agency that many Republicans privately blame for mishandling the response to the coronavirus.
The senior administration official noted that CDC has received more than $ 7.5 billion from previous legislation and that $ 5 billion of that funding has yet to be committed.
Jordain Carney contributed.
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