CONGRESS
‘It’s a mess’: Republican senators deride key
proposals in GOP virus package
Democrats also lambasted the GOP's plan.
By ANDREW
DESIDERIO, MARIANNE LEVINE and HEATHER CAYGLE
07/28/2020
02:00 PM EDT
Updated:
07/28/2020 06:20 PM EDT
Senate
Republicans complained on Tuesday about key provisions in the GOP-authored
coronavirus relief bill one day after its unveiling, as Democrats panned the
proposal as a non-starter.
The jockeying
on Capitol Hill underscores how far apart both parties remain — and the
treacherous path Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell faces as he confronts
internal GOP divisions and kicks off negotiations with Democrats.
“It seems
to me that Sen. McConnell really doesn’t want to get an agreement,” Speaker
Nancy Pelosi said after an hour-long meeting in her office with Senate Minority
Leader Chuck Schumer, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House chief
of staff Meadows Tuesday afternoon.
The group
will meet again tomorrow but Pelosi didn’t sound optimistic about reaching a
deal anytime soon.
“What we’re
doing now is really airing our differences — this discovery and understanding
where there might be opportunity or not,” Pelosi added.
Meadows, as
he and Mnuchin left McConnell’s office Tuesday evening, said he believes the
negotiations are in the “second inning." Mnuchin added that both parties
were still “in the beginning” of the talks, saying he and Meadows were then
headed to the White House to brief the president.
Meadows
said Democrats are holding firm on the $600 in increased weekly federal
unemployment benefits and $915 billion in additional state and local aid.
On the
other side of the Capitol, GOP senators rattled off several concerns with the
$1 trillion package in public remarks and during a private lunch with senior
Trump administration officials on Tuesday. Their gripes with the bill ran the
gamut, from frustrations at the price tag to the process by which the bill was
written and released. There were even objections over an unrelated provision
the White House sought that allocates nearly $2 billion in funding for the
construction of a new FBI headquarters in downtown Washington, D.C.
“I think if
Mitch can get half the conference, that’d be quite an accomplishment,” Sen.
Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said.
“We have
unity in disagreement,” added Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), who complained during
the GOP lunch about not knowing the bill's content, according to GOP sources.
“I’m not
going to vote for a bill in the name of unity when I don’t know what’s in the
damn thing,” Kennedy later said.
Sen. Josh
Hawley (R-Mo.) emerged from the closed-door lunch with a blunt assessment:
“It’s a mess. I can’t figure out what this bill is about. I don’t know what
we’re trying to accomplish with it.”
Sen. Mike
Lee (R-Utah) spoke up about the lack of amendments and the legislative process,
according to GOP sources. And Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who opposes a new
coronavirus relief measure altogether, stormed out of the lunch meeting early
and harangued his colleagues over the $1 trillion price tag, which is almost
certain to rise during a negotiation with Democrats.
“It’s just
very frustrating to me because it’s people who go home and say we’re fiscally
conservative, [and] are now in a bidding contest with the Democrats to see how
much money they can spend,” Paul said. He later called out in particular his
fellow Republicans who are up for re-election this year, accusing them of
pushing for new spending to aid their reelection bids.
“I think
they have the misguided notion that you have to spend this or you can’t get
elected,” Paul added.
McConnell
(R-Ky.) addressed those intra-party divisions on Tuesday, saying he wasn’t
surprised to hear the criticisms from members of his conference.
“I have
members who are all over the lot on this,” McConnell acknowledged. “This is a
complicated problem. We’ve done the best we can to develop a consensus among
the broadest number of Republican senators — and that’s just the starting
point, that’s just where we begin in dealing with the other side and with the
administration.”
Senate
Majority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.) encouraged members at the lunch to
communicate with one another internally before speaking publicly, according to
an attendee.
In addition
to the group of fiscal conservatives that opposes another round of relief cash,
new factions are emerging over other aspects of the GOP’s opening offer,
including increased flexibility for state and local governments.
“I’m very
concerned about the amount of money we’re talking about,” Sen. Rick Scott
(R-Fla.). “What I don’t want to do is bail out the states. That’s wrong.”
President
Donald Trump has even brushed off the significance of the disagreements within
his party, telling reporters on Tuesday that the GOP plan is “sort of
semi-irrelevant.”
Meadows
didn't directly address Trump's comments about the GOP bill being
"semi-irrelevant" when asked.
"Right
now I think everybody recognizes there's a long way between $1 trillion and $3
trillion and so to suggest there's room for negotiation, it's actually going to
have to be built from the ground up,” he said.
Democrats,
meanwhile, have dismissed the Republican plan as inadequate, as $600-a-week in
expanded federal unemployment benefits and eviction protections are due to
expire at the end of this week.
Republicans
have “no concern about the fact that so many people, millions of children are
food insecure, millions of people can’t pay the rent,” Pelosi told Democrats on
a private call Tuesday, adding that the GOP bill was riddled with
“condescension and disrespect.”
And there’s
no sign lawmakers are anywhere close to a deal, even as Congress stares down
multiple deadlines. Pelosi and Schumer questioned McConnell’s willingness to
reach an agreement, saying the Kentucky Republican has indicated he wouldn’t
compromise on his demands for liability protections for schools and businesses
in the next bill.
“That is no
way to negotiate particularly when his provision is so extreme,” Schumer told
reporters Tuesday afternoon.
Several
Republican senators were stunned in particular by the new FBI funds, which
Democrats said were intended to boost profits for Trump’s hotel on Pennsylvania
Avenue, located across the street from the proposed FBI building. Though both
parties agree that the FBI needs a new headquarters, several lawmakers had been
pushing for the facility to be constructed in Virginia or Maryland. The White
House on Monday said the building should remain near Justice Department
headquarters downtown.
McConnell,
for his part, said he opposes “non-germane” provisions in any final coronavirus
relief package, effectively shutting down the effort.
“When we
get to the end of the process, I would hope all of the non-Covid-related
measures are out, no matter what bill they were in at the start,” McConnell
said.
When asked
about the FBI funding, Graham said he would support stripping it out of the
final bill, adding: “That makes no sense to me.”
Sen. Ron
Johnson (R-Wis.) said it “was kind of a strange addition,” while Sen. Pat
Toomey (R-Pa.), a fiscal hawk, said he was “a little surprised by that.”
“I’m pretty
skeptical about the way it seems to be shaping up,” Toomey said about the
overall bill.
Senate
Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) confirmed that the
White House pushed for the FBI funding.
Meadows,
however, called the FBI money a “pressing need” as he went into the weekly
Republican Senate lunch, contradicting McConnell. During the lunch, Meadows
reassured members that he'd try to stay close to $1 trillion, according to Sen.
Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.).
Cramer said
Meadows hypothetically pointed to examples of priorities for Democrats and
Republicans "that may be tradable, to remove some money to make room for
other things."
Democrats,
meanwhile, are seizing on the GOP’s internal disputes and highlighting the FBI
provision to suggest Republicans aren’t serious about the coronavirus
negotiations.
“Senate
Republicans managed to sneak in nearly $2 billion in taxpayer funds for a new
FBI building whose location will increase the value of the Trump hotel and
enrich the president and his family,” Schumer said. “Yup, in this proposal,
Senate Republicans reward the president and his family’s business interests but
not our essential workers.”
The House
is supposed to depart later this week for a lengthy August recess but House
Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) told Democrats they would be on call to
return next week, with 24 hour notice, to vote on a potential coronavirus
package. Privately, though, multiple Democratic aides said a deal next week
currently seems hopeful at best, despite expiring deadlines for unemployment
insurance and eviction moratoriums.
“A fig leaf
from McConnell ... reflects their policy of ‘you’re on your own,’” Hoyer added,
dismissing the Senate proposal.
John
Bresnahan contributed to this story.
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