CORONAVIRUS
Senate GOP releases Covid proposal amid internal
divisions
The White House-backed Senate GOP proposal reduces
boosted unemployment benefits from $600 to $200.
Senate
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell
Majority
Leader Mitch McConnell has vowed that any next coronavirus relief bill will be
the Senate’s last.
By MARIANNE
LEVINE, JOHN BRESNAHAN and SARAH FERRIS
07/27/2020
12:06 PM EDT
Senate
Republicans released their $1 trillion coronavirus relief proposal Monday
afternoon, setting off what could be weeks of tough political battles with
Democrats over unemployment insurance, state and local aid, and liability
protection for businesses and schools as the pandemic continues to batter the
U.S. economy.
Senate
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) outlined the pillars of the proposal,
which will include another round of $1,200 in direct payments to individual
Americans, more money for the Paycheck Protection Program, a reduction in
boosted federal unemployment benefits, liability protection and more than $100
billion for reopening schools and colleges.
With the
introduction of the GOP proposal, talks with Democrats will begin in earnest.
"Which
version of our distinguished Democratic colleagues are the American people
about to get?" McConnell asked on the Senate floor. "Are they going
to get the Democratic Party we got in March when our colleagues met in good
faith negotiations and worked with us to turn our framework into a bipartisan
product?"
But Speaker
Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said
they were "somewhat frustrated" with Senate Republicans following a
90-minute closed-door session with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White
House chief of staff Mark Meadows, who are leading the talks for the Trump
administration.
"We
had hoped there would be a bill. Instead, in the Senate, they put together
little pieces here, and there, and everywhere," Schumer told reporters
Monday night. "It's pretty clear they don't have 51 votes in the Senate
among the Republicans for a proposal. It's frustrating."
Pelosi
repeatedly noted the GOP package had $2 billion for the FBI, including funding
to help renovate the bureau's headquarters building on Pennsylvania Ave., which
is located across the Trump International Hotel.
"This
isn't serious," Pelosi complained. "This is wrong. We have to do
what's right for the American people."
The Senate
GOP plan calls for the reduction in increased federal unemployment benefits from
$600 to $200 per week for a 60-day period, or until states are able to provide
a 70 percent wage replacement. This prospective change had been floated by the
White House last week, although there have been concerns whether state
unemployment agencies could handle the revisions.
"The
boosted unemployment benefits are significantly more than the Democratic Senate
and Democratic president approved in the 2009 economic crisis," Senate
Finance Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said on the floor Monday.
The GOP
package also provides additional flexibility for the $150 billion in state
funds provided under the CARES Act and extends the time frame under which that
money can be used. The proposal also includes liability protection for
businesses and schools in the event of lawsuits due to coronavirus exposure.
Senate
Appropriations Chairman Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) said the bill includes $16
billion in new money for expanding state testing capacity — on top of $9
billion that hasn't been spent yet — $26 billion for the development and
distribution of vaccines, $105 billion to help schools reopen, $20 billion to
assist farmers and ranchers and close to $30 billion to "bolster the U.S. defense
industrial base."
The
Republican initiative includes close to $2 billion for the FBI to purchase
personal protective equipment and boost the National Instant Criminal
Background Check System, a White House priority. When McConnell was asked about
the money at a news conference, he said: "Obviously we had to have an
agreement with the administration in order to get started."
Even before
Republicans were find Schumer (D-N.Y.) was quick to pan the GOP proposal on the
Senate floor.
"They
can't even put one bill together they are so divided," Schumer said.
"The greatest crisis America has faced in close to a century on health, 75
years on the economy, and our Republican colleagues can't even agree among
themselves about what to do and have put out a few piecemeal pieces that don't
even come close to doing the job."
Negotiations
on the next coronavirus relief proposal come as a $600 federal boost in
unemployment benefits from the March CARES package began to expire over the
weekend. Democrats are pushing to extend those benefits into next year.
The release
of the Senate GOP plan comes after Mnuchin and Meadows spent the weekend
negotiating with Senate leadership staff to hammer out the final details.
While the
first three major coronavirus relief packages passed Congress with large
bipartisan majorities — despite some intense partisan wrangling — this round of
discussions is going to be much more challenging. Democrats want to spend at
least $2 trillion more than Republicans will propose, while GOP hard-liners
don't want to do a package at all.
In a sign
that negotiations are going to be difficult from the start, Meadows and Mnuchin
spent Sunday floating a piecemeal approach to the aid package. But McConnell
has vowed that any upcoming coronavirus relief bill will be the Senate’s last.
Pelosi has also rejected the piece-by-piece idea — which some insiders are
referring to as a "skinny" proposal — as a non-starter.
"It's
good that they called it skinny because that's what you get when you don't have
enough to eat," Pelosi said, decrying the lack of food stamp money in the
GOP plan.
House
Democrats were also quick to dismiss the idea of cutting federal unemployment
benefits down to $200 per week.
“It is the
ultimate disconnect with what Americans are dealing with if they think an extra
$200 is enough for the families,” Rep. Dan Kildee (D-Mich.) said. “They don’t
seem to understand that money is actually supporting that economy.”
Democrats
say they aren’t ruling out a short-term extension entirely, if it could
continue the extra $600 per week in benefits. But many are skeptical of the
GOP’s efforts, citing the weeks of delay leading up to this point.
“My view
is, we passed the Heroes Act 2½ months ago. It was a comprehensive and decisive
response to a deadly pandemic. The administration and Mitch McConnell have done
nothing ever since,” House Democratic Caucus Chair Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.)
said Monday.
“It’s time
to act and act in a transformative way, and not with a short-term Band-Aid-like
fix.”
The stakes
for Congress to get another major package through before leaving for the August
recess are high, as coronavirus cases continue to rise nationwide. Pelosi vowed
Sunday that Congress would not leave town without a deal. Democrats are pushing
for the $3 trillion Heroes Act, which the House passed in May, although
McConnell has rejected that approach as far too costly.
Senate
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is trying to pull off something of a miracle.
 |
Democrats pan Republican plan to slash jobless
benefits to $200 as 'totally inadequate'
White House officials and top Democrats negotiating a
new aid package as economy continues to reel from coronavirus crisis
Guardian
staff and agencies
Tue 28 Jul
2020 01.34 BST
Unemployment
assistance, eviction protections and other relief for millions of Americans
struggling in an economy cratered by the coronavirus crisis were at stake as
White House officials on Monday began fraught negotiations with top Democrats
on a new aid package.
Aid runs
out on Friday for a $600 weekly jobless benefit that Democrats call a lifeline
for out-of-work Americans. Republican want to slash it to $200 a week, saying
that the federal bump is too generous on top of state benefits and is
discouraging employees from returning to work.
The US
Senate’s Republican majority leader, Mitch McConnell, on Monday rolled out a
proposal worth around $1tn, amid infighting in his own party and Democrats
imploring him to come to the negotiating table.
The
Senate’s top Democrat, Chuck Schumer of New York, called McConnell’s proposed
relief package “totally inadequate”, at only about a third the size of what
House Democrats have put forward.
“It won’t
include food assistance for hungry kids whose parents can’t feed them, how
hard-hearted, how cruel,” said Schumer.
Nancy
Pelosi, the House speaker, added: “Time is running out.”
With the
virus death toll climbing and 4.2m infections nationwide, both parties are
eager for a deal.
There is
widespread agreement that more money is needed for virus testing, to help
schools prepare to open at the end of the summer break and to shore up small
businesses. Voters are assessing their handling of the virus crisis before the
November election. Donald Trump’s Democratic challenger for the White House,
Joe Biden, is ahead in many important polls, with just under 100 days to go to
election day.
And the
president’s standing is at one of the lowest points of his term, according to a
new AP-NORC poll, The Associated Press reported.
Steven
Mnuchin, the treasury secretary, and Mark Meadows, the White House chief of
staff, worked over the weekend on the GOP proposal and agreed to meet with
Pelosi and Schumer at the speaker’s office on Monday evening for talks.
The
Republicans come to the negotiating table hobbled by infighting and delays.
McConnell said he wanted to hit “pause” on new spending after Congress approved
a sweeping $2.2tn relief package in March.
But Pelosi
took the opposite approach, swiftly passing a $3tn effort with robust
Democratic support. In the intervening months, the crisis deepened.
The GOP
proposal unveiled by McConnell on Monday afternoon provides some $105bn to help
schools and colleges reopen, new money for virus testing and business benefits,
including a fresh round of loans under the Paycheck Protection Program, tax
breaks and a sweeping and controversial liability shield from Covid-19-related
lawsuits.
Elizabeth
Warren, the Massachusetts senator and former candidate for the Democratic
nomination for president, slammed McConnell for what she saw as a focus on
protecting big business at the expense of those suffering amid the crisis.
The
Republican proposal would also provide another round of $1,200 direct payments
based on the same formula from the earlier aid bill. People making $75,000 or
less would receive the full amount and those making more than $75,000 would
receive less, depending on their income. People earning above $100,000 would
again not qualify for the payment.
“Senate
Republicans have offered another bold framework to help our nation,” McConnell
said as he opened the Senate.
But
conservative Republicans quickly broke ranks on McConnell’s plan, arguing the
spending was too much and priorities misplaced. Half the Republican senators
could vote against the bill, some warned, and their opposition leaves McConnell
heading into negotiations with Pelosi without the full force of the Senate
majority behind him.
“The focus
of this legislation is wrong,” Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz, one of the
bill’s most vocal opponents, told reporters at the Capitol. “Our priority, our
objective, should be restarting the economy.”
As
bipartisan talks unfold, the White House is now suggesting a narrower relief
package may be all that’s possible with Friday’s approaching deadlines.
The $600
weekly jobless benefits boost, which was approved as part of the March aid
package, officially expires 31 July, but because of the way states process
unemployment payments, the cutoff was effectively Saturday.
Under the
GOP proposal, the jobless boost would be reduced to $200 a week for two months
and phased out to a new system that ensures no more than 70% of an employee’s
previous pay. States could request an additional two months, if needed, to make
the transition.
Democrats
pointed to an assessment from the economist Mark Zandi, who called it a “poor
policy choice”. Zandi said that if the GOP proposal became law, nearly 1m jobs
would be lost by year’s end and the unemployment rate, now above 11%, would
climb more than half a percentage point.
Economists
widely see signs of trouble in the economy, which showed an uptick in the
spring as some states eased stay-home orders and businesses reopened, but it
now faces fresh turmoil with a prolonged virus crisis as states clamp down
again.
Friday is
also the end of a federal eviction moratorium on millions of rental units that
the White House said it wants to extend in some fashion.
At the same
time, budget watchers are wary of the rising debt load as Washington piles on
unprecedented sums in trying to contain the pandemic and economic fallout.
|
CONGRESS
‘It's a tough hand’: Brutal year gets even worse
for McConnell
With Republicans divided on coronavirus relief, the
Senate majority leader has less leverage to negotiate with Democrats.
By JOHN
BRESNAHAN and ANDREW DESIDERIO
07/27/2020
08:42 PM EDT
With less
than 100 days until voters head to the polls, Senate Republicans are in
trouble. More than 30 million Americans are out of work, tens of thousands of
businesses are shuttered, and parents across the country are wondering whether
they will be able to send their children back to school in the coming weeks.
Now
McConnell has to help negotiate another massively complicated coronavirus
relief package through a bitterly divided Senate to help address these huge
problems. And this time, he faces flak from both his left and right, as
Democrats are seeking trillions of dollars more in funding than the Kentucky
Republican wants to approve, while a large group of GOP hard-liners opposes new
spending altogether.
“I’ve said
to him, ‘You’ve got the worst job,’” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) quipped. “I
wouldn’t want his job for anything.”
Republican
divisions have already forced McConnell to delay the unveiling of the $1
trillion proposal he released on Monday, an embarrassing setback for the party
at a critical moment. McConnell has also openly said the plan would have
“fairly significant support” among Senate Republicans but “probably not
everyone” — which is as close to a tell as McConnell gets to admitting his
cards aren’t very strong.
And then
there’s Donald Trump and White House officials, who seem more concerned with
saving the president’s political career than they are about preserving GOP
control of the Senate. For Republicans, working with the White House to craft a
unified position hasn’t always been easy these past few weeks; Treasury
Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows have
repeatedly altered some of their demands during closed-door discussions with
McConnell and other top Republicans during that period, or staked out positions
they know Senate GOP leaders can't support, according to sources familiar with
the talks.
Meanwhile
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer
(D-N.Y.) sit back and wait. Schumer has repeatedly mocked McConnell over the
divisions within the GOP ranks. And Pelosi has two big advantages heading into
these negotiations: the House has already passed a bill, which while strongly
opposed by Republicans, gives her leverage; and secondly, her majority is safe
in November, something McConnell can’t say.
For the
longest Senate GOP leader in history, 2020 just keeps getting tougher and
tougher.
“Mitch has
a long and storied history of pulling rabbits out of the hat,” Majority Whip
John Thune (R-S.D.) said on Monday. “But you play the hand you’re dealt. And
it’s a tough hand.”
On New
Year’s Day, Republicans looked like favorites to keep their majority, despite
the unending swirl of controversy and conflict that characterizes the Trump
era.
But
McConnell — in the midst of his own run for a historic seventh term — first had
to lead GOP senators through Trump’s impeachment trial. Despite some angst
among Senate Republicans, they held the line for the president. "You did a
fantastic job," Trump told McConnell in front of TV cameras in the East
Room of the White House on Feb. 6.
Soon after
that political knife fight, the coronavirus pandemic hit the United States, an
ongoing national disaster that has killed nearly 150,000 Americans and
decimated the U.S. economy. Trump’s poll numbers have slid badly due to his
unsteady handling of the crisis, so much so that Trump now threatens to pull
down the embattled 6-year-old GOP majority with him.
With
Mnuchin leading coronavirus negotiations for the White House earlier in the
year, McConnell was able to eventually help craft two major deals with Schumer
and Pelosi that pumped more than $2 trillion into the U.S. economy.
But now
McConnell faces deficit fatigue among many Senate Republicans, who have seen
the U.S. national debt total skyrocket to more than $26 trillion. The annual
deficit will exceed $3 trillion, stunning the GOP.
“Simply
shoveling cash from Washington is not going to solve the problem. And right
now, all the Democrats and too many Republicans are contemplating doing just
that,” said Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas). “Massive spending and pork and ballooning
deficits and debt are bipartisan problems.”
As more
Republicans peel off, McConnell’s negotiating hand is significantly weakened
heading into high-stakes negotiations with Democrats. Even if all 53
Republicans were united, McConnell would still need Democratic support in order
to reach the 60-vote threshold. This time, though, McConnell will start off
with far less support on his side.
“At the end
of the day, [McConnell] has to accept the reality that probably half of our
members in the Senate won’t vote for it no matter what’s in it,” said Sen. Roy
Blunt (R-Mo.), who was deeply involved in talks with the White House over the
spending portion of the GOP proposal.
“And so
trying to come up with a bill that satisfies would not justify the effort that
takes. At the same time, he has to justify to the rest of us that he has a bill
that’s targeted on [fighting] the coronavirus, helping the economy, and getting
kids back to school.”
The
Republicans’ proposal unveiled Monday costs roughly $1 trillion, but Democrats
have been pushing for upward of $3 trillion in new spending and relief
programs. And given how much help McConnell will need from Democrats, the final
cost will almost certainly soar well past an amount that some Republicans can
stomach.
“It’s going
to lose a bunch of us that are fiscal conservatives, regardless of the content
— just the amount,” said Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.). “It’s got some of the
features in there that we weren’t really liking. I think you’re going to see a
lot of Republicans that are probably not going to be for it.”
“We throw
trillions around pretty casually around here,” Braun added.
On the
other side are Republicans like Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who
downplayed concerns about the national debt, instead highlighting the
nationwide surge in coronavirus cases and the cascading economic effects as
reasons to go big again on a new relief package.
“At the end
of the day, we all have a need to pass something,” said Graham, who has also
predicted that as many as half of the Senate GOP Conference could oppose the
measure. “And you make the fiscal argument, we haven’t accounted for all the
money in Phase Three, I get that. But the problems are worse on many fronts.”
Sen. John
Cornyn (R-Texas), who is up for reelection in November, insisted the
difficulties facing Republicans weren’t as dire as they may seem from the
outside. Cornyn also expressed total faith that McConnell, if anyone, could
make a deal a majority of Senate Republicans would support.
“Well, you
can’t really complain because we’re all volunteers. Nobody is making us do
this,” Cornyn joked. “Obviously, there’s a lot of different points of view. But
one thing I’m pretty sure of is we will pass a bill in the next two weeks. I
just can’t tell you what it’s going to look like.”
Marianne
LeVine contributed to this report.
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