World News | Negotiators Report Progress on Long-delayed COVID Aid Bill
Get latest articles and stories on World at LatestLY. Top negotiators reported progress on a long-delayed COVID-19 aid package after a rare meeting of Capitol Hill's four most senior lawmakers.
Washington, Dec 16 (AP) Top negotiators reported progress on a long-delayed COVID-19 aid package after a rare meeting of Capitol Hill's four most senior lawmakers.
The quartet, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell, said they would reconvene Tuesday night in hopes of sealing an agreement soon.
“I think there's progress," reported House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., as he left the session in Pelosi's office. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin joined by phone.
The uptick in activity could be a sign that an agreement is near, though COVID-19 relief talks have been notoriously difficult.
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“We are still talking to each other and there is agreement that we are not going to leave here without the omni and the COVID package,” said McConnell, R-Ky., using Capitol Hill's shorthand for a catchall, omnibus spending bill that would be paired together with the COVID relief measure and a variety of other end-of-session items.
The Kentucky Republican is playing a strong hand in the lame-duck session and is pressuring Democrats to drop a much-sought $160 billion aid package for states and local governments struggling to balance their budgets because of the pandemic.
Rank-and-file Democrats appear increasingly resigned to having to drop, for now, the party's demand for fiscal relief for states and local governments whose budgets have been thrown out of balance by the pandemic.
Pelosi, D-Calif., pressed in talks with Mnuchin on Monday for help for struggling states and localities. But top Democratic allies of President-elect Joe Biden came out in support of a $748 billion plan offered by a bipartisan group of lawmakers and hinted they won't insist on a pitched battle for state and local aid now.
“We cannot afford to wait any longer to act. This should not be Congress' last COVID relief bill, but it is a strong compromise that deserves support from both Republicans and Democrats in the Senate," said Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del. “We cannot leave for the holidays without getting relief to those Americans who need it.”
The message from Coons, a confidant of Biden, and a similar message from Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., came as a bipartisan group of lawmakers unveiled a detailed COVID-19 aid proposal in hopes it would serve as a model for their battling leaders to follow as they try to negotiate a final agreement.
But the group was unable to forge a compromise on GOP-sought provisions shielding businesses from COVID-19-related lawsuits, a key priority of McConnell. He is pressing a lowest-common-denominator approach that would drop the lawsuit shield idea for now if Democrats agree to drop the $160 billion state and local aid package.
“We can live to fight another day on what we disagree on,” McConnell said Tuesday. “But we ought to go forward with what we can agree on." Pelosi has insisted for months that state and local aid would be in any final bill, but as time is running out, Democrats appear unwilling to hold the rest of the package hostage over the demand.
Several Democrats appeared at a bipartisan news conference on Monday to endorse the $748 billion package.
“We're not going home until this is done,” said Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., on CNN Tuesday morning. “We've got to get people a lifeline. It will pass — the $748 (billion).”
The $748 billion aid package contains money for struggling businesses, the unemployed, schools and vaccine distribution. There is also $45 billion for transportation and transit assistance, funding for rural internet service and help for the Postal Service, among other provisions. The other bill proposes a $160 billion aid package for state and local governments and a modified liability shield that is backed by Republicans and Democratic moderate Manchin, but it is probably too politically freighted to advance.
Outstanding issues in the leadership talks include a potential second round of direct payments to individuals, a plan for $300-per-week bonus unemployment benefits, state and local aid, and the GOP-sought liability shield against COVID-19-related lawsuits. (AP)
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)