Meadows, Mnuchin push for narrow coronavirus
relief bill
The Trump administration's lead negotiators floated
the alternate approach in media appearances Sunday.
By MARIANNE
LEVINE and NOLAN D. MCCASKILL
07/26/2020
10:56 AM EDT
Updated:
07/26/2020 05:14 PM EDT
Even before
Senate Republicans roll out a proposal on the next coronavirus relief package,
top Trump administration officials are already pushing a backup plan in case
negotiations stall.
During
media appearances Sunday, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and Treasury
Secretary Steven Mnuchin suggested Congress could take an issue-by-issue
approach to coronavirus relief, an idea House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)
has already rejected.
“Honestly,
I see us being able to provide unemployment insurance, maybe a retention credit
to keep people from being displaced or brought back into the workplace, helping
with our schools,” Meadows said on ABC’s “This Week” with George
Stephanopoulos. “If we can do that along with liability protection, perhaps we
put that forward and get that passed as we can negotiate on the rest of the
bill in the weeks to come.”
The
comments come as Republicans and Democrats remain deeply divided over how to
approach enhanced unemployment benefits, which began to expire this weekend.
The March CARES Act provided a weekly $600 boost for workers hit hard by the
pandemic. Democrats want to see the $600 benefit extended into next year, while
Republicans argue that they provide a disincentive to work.
During a
news conference last week, Pelosi shot down the idea of any temporary extension
of boosted unemployment benefits outside of a broader coronavirus bill.
“This is a
package,” Pelosi said. “We cannot piecemeal this.”
On Sunday,
however, Mnuchin appeared to dismiss that position.
“When you
talk about piecemeal, this will be the fifth set of legislation,” he told Fox
News’ Chris Wallace. “So there’s no reason why we can’t have No. 5, 6 and 7 as
we need to deal with issues.”
President
Donald Trump and Mnuchin are pushing for enhanced benefits that amount to 70
percent of a worker’s wages. But even the administration and Senate Republicans
last week were divided on how to approach the matter, leading to a delay in
rolling out the GOP’s opening offer on coronavirus relief to Democrats.
Mnuchin and
Meadows spent the weekend meeting with Senate leadership staff to work out the
final details of the Republican proposal, which is expected to include another
round of direct payments to Americans, $105 billion for reopening schools, $16
billion in new money for testing, more flexibility for state money, and
liability protections for schools and universities.
They met
again with Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s staff Sunday afternoon. Upon
leaving the meeting, Meadows said the Republican proposal would be released
Monday afternoon.
“We fully
anticipate that Senate leadership will introduce their package tomorrow
afternoon,” Meadows said. “It’s just down to a handful of items where we
believe a call here or there should be able to resolve it.”
He
described the issue-by-issue approach as “pragmatic” and predicted that it
would “be supported by a number of Senate Republicans.“
Negotiations
with Democrats are expected to begin in earnest this week.
During an
appearance Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” Pelosi said Democrats had “been
anxious to negotiate for two months and 10 days” and that Republicans were still
in “disarray."
“I’ve been
here all weekend hoping they had something to give us,” Pelosi said from the
Capitol. “They promised it this week. It didn’t come. Now they’re saying
Monday.”
The House
and Senate are scheduled to soon leave for August recess. But Pelosi insisted
Sunday that Congress will not break until a deal is reached.
“We can’t
go home without it,” she said.
Democrats
and Republicans remain far apart on key issues, including a price tag. The
Trump administration and Senate Republicans are aiming for a $1 trillion
package, while Democrats are pushing for the $3 trillion Heroes bill, which
passed the House in May. Democrats are also pushing for extending a moratorium
on evictions. White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow suggested Sunday on CNN
that request would be granted.
"We
will lengthen the eviction, we will lengthen it,” Kudlow told CNN‘s Jake
Tapper.
Meadows:
'We're not going to extend' $600 unemployment benefit
Poll:
Support for Trump’s handling of coronavirus pandemic hits new low
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