House Speaker Nancy Pelosi criticized Senate Republicans’ “piecemeal” coronavirus spending proposal Monday morning, blaming them for slow rolling Congress’ response to continued economic hardship.
“Children are hungry, families cannot pay the rent, unemployment is expiring, and the Republicans want to pause again and go piecemeal,” the California Democrat wrote in a statement. “We have stood ready to negotiate for more than two months. Unfortunately, it still remains unclear if Republicans will produce a proposal today.”
“If Republicans care about working families, this won’t take long. Time is running out. Congress cannot go home without an agreement,” she added.
The GOP is slated to unveil their plan for an extension for boosted unemployment insurance on Monday, scaling back the universal $600 extra weekly payments down to 70% of the amount an individual made before being unemployed.
Though no text has been announced yet.
Mrs. Pelosi rejected the narrow-bill approach last week and throughout the weekend, saying it was unacceptable that Republicans weren’t able to put a full proposal for bipartisan negotiations yet.
The unemployment benefits, and several other COVID-19 specific government aid, is set to expire at the end of the month, putting pressure on lawmakers to pass some sort of relief package before August recess.
Democrats, meanwhile, are doubling down on their $3 trillion package that they passed back in May, which would provide billions for schools, state and local governments, as well as vote-by-mail policies and aid for the U.S. Post Office.
