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]]>Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) speaks during her weekly news conference at the U.S. Capitol on August 6, 2020 in Washington, DC.
Stefani Reynolds | Getty Images
The House passed a bill Tuesday that would fund the government into December and avoid a shutdown before a Sept. 30 deadline.
After clearing the House in an overwhelming vote, the legislation heads to the Republican-held Senate. Earlier Tuesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she reached a spending agreement with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Republicans.
Pelosi said the proposal would include $8 billion for nutrition assistance for schoolchildren and families. It renews Pandemic EBT, a program that provides food benefits while schools are closed set to expire at the end of September, for a full year.
It also adds increased accountability for farm aid money to prevent it from gong to large oil companies, according to Pelosi. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had criticized a lack of farm assistance funds in a bill House Democrats released Monday.
The bill would fund the government through Dec. 11, avoiding a potentially chaotic shutdown during the coronavirus pandemic and before the Nov. 3 election. Lawmakers then aim to hash out an agreement to fund the government through Sept. 30, 2021, the end of the next fiscal year.
Lawmakers have said they want to get past the shutdown threat to focus on passing more coronavirus relief, which they have failed to do for months amid disagreements over the size of a fifth aid package.
Correction: This article has been updated to correct a previous headline.
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]]>Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin said Sunday that Republicans intend to begin working this week on a continuing resolution to keep the government from shutting down and will separately advance a “targeted” coronavirus-related stimulus package this week.
While Republicans and Democrats remain at odds over the right approach to coronavirus-related stimulus, Mr. Mnuchin told Fox News Sunday that he and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have agreed on a path to avoid a government shutdown before the November election.
“We haven’t agreed on the specific details, but my expectation would be [the funding will last] through the beginning of December, that’s what we did this year,” Mr. Mnuchin told Fox. “For now, the most important thing is that at the end of the month we don’t shut down the government and we get something passed the election.”
Mr. Mnuchin said he and Mrs. Pelosi have agreed generally on pursuing a clean continuing resolution, with another shutdown showdown looming between the election and next presidential inauguration.
Mr. Mnuchin told Fox News Sunday that the Trump administration also wants to provide more stimulus but has hit an impasse with Mrs. Pelosi.
“Where we’re really stuck is both on certain policy issues but more importantly on the topline,” Mr. Mnuchin told Fox. “The Speaker has refused to sit down and negotiate unless we agree to something like a two-and-a-half trillion-dollar deal in advance. … Let’s do a more targeted bill now if we need to do more in thirty days, we’ll continue to do more.”
Mr. Mnuchin also said President Trump’s economic plans will lower the unemployment rate that skyrocketed during the coronavirus outbreak back down to three or four percent in early 2021, if the president is reelected in November.
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]]>Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Tuesday that a new stimulus package is still needed to help the economy recover from the ravages of the coronavirus, and he committed to calling Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) right away to try to restart talks.
Mnuchin’s comments came in testimony before the select subcommittee on the coronavirus crisis, which convened on Capitol Hill in the final week of Congress’s summer recess. Mnuchin and the panel’s chairman, Rep. James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.), appeared in person along with a handful of lawmakers, while others spoke through a video link.
“While we continue to see signs of a strong economic recovery, we are sensitive to the fact that there is more work to be done, and certain areas of the economy require additional relief,” Mnuchin testified in his opening statement. “I believe a bipartisan agreement still should be reached and would provide substantial funds” for areas including schools, testing, vaccines, small businesses, enhanced unemployment benefits and the U.S. Postal Service. President Trump, meanwhile, said on Tuesday that the struggling airline industry would also need more assistance.
Clyburn chided Mnuchin for not making a deal with Democrats months after the House passed a sweeping $3.4 trillion bill in May called the Heroes Act.
“Additional economic stimulus is urgently needed … as the pandemic drags on, states, cities and businesses are warning that more layoffs may be coming,” Clyburn said. “Secretary Mnuchin, I hope you will return to the negotiating table prepared to find common cause.”
Mnuchin was involved in talks last month with Pelosi, Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows aimed at producing a new economic relief package. But those talks collapsed amid partisan rancor, and Trump moved forward on his own with executive actions aimed at providing some relief in areas including unemployment assistance.
Those executive actions have had limited impact, but Meadows reiterated in a television interview Tuesday that more such unilateral moves were under consideration.
Efforts at restarting the talks have sputtered. Pelosi and Meadows spoke last week, with Pelosi saying Democrats would agree to a $2.2 trillion package. But that figure is still too high for Republicans.
“I do not support $2.2 trillion,” Mnuchin said Tuesday. “But what is more important is what is the breakdown of getting money to American workers, American families, kids … there are tremendous areas of agreement and that’s what we should be doing right away.”
“I don’t think the right outcome is zero. No one thinks the right outcome is zero,” Mnuchin said.
Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) asked Mnuchin if he would commit to calling Pelosi on Tuesday to restart talks.
“Can I tell her you suggested I call her right after the hearing?” Mnuchin asked.
“Yes, yes, yes,” Waters said.
“Done, I will call her right after the hearing,” Mnuchin said.
The Treasury secretary did reach out to the House speaker following the hearing, according to a person familiar with the call who requested anonymity to discuss private communications. However, it was unclear if they actually connected, and there was no public sign of movement in the negotiations.
The administration has pushed Democrats to agree to a slimmed-down package addressing areas of common ground, but Democrats have refused to abandon their goal of a comprehensive package.
Senate Republicans have been working to agree on what they’re calling a “skinny” or “targeted” package with a price tag under $1 trillion that they may try to move forward on the Senate floor as soon as next week. Democrats would probably block this, but Republicans have been trying to put the focus on what they view as Democrats’ unreasonable refusal to compromise in the talks. Senate GOP incumbents in tight races are also eager to be able to vote on some additional recovery measures.
Some 27 million Americans are receiving some form of unemployment aid. On Thursday, the Labor Department said another 1 million Americans filed jobless claims the prior week.
The stock market has made strong gains, and the economy has recovered slightly less than half of the jobs that were initially lost during the pandemic in March and April. Trump has been talking bullishly about the economy’s revival, focusing on things like the stock market, as he and some other White House advisers insist that the economy is poised for a strong “V-shaped” recovery.
Democrats and some liberal economists, however, have expressed concerns about a “K-shaped” recovery, in which the economically advantaged bounce back, while people who are on the lower levels of the income scale fare poorly.
Rep. Andy Kim (D-N.J.) asked Mnuchin if he agreed the economy was poised for a strong “V-shaped” recovery.
“I think we are set for a very strong recovery but let me just say, there are many businesses, many industries that have been destroyed by this, and that’s why I urge Congress, the House and the Senate, to move forward and let us provide help especially for those hardest-hit businesses,” Mnuchin said.
“Let’s not get lost on different letters of the alphabet, let’s move forward in a bipartisan basis on areas we can agree on,” he said.
Some House Democrats in tough reelection races have also grown uneasy about the inaction on additional coronavirus aid, as the stimulus checks, enhanced unemployment aid and other programs Congress agreed to in a $3 trillion spate of spending in March and April expire. Even as Pelosi has held out for a comprehensive package, some in her caucus have sounded open to the incremental approach pushed by Mnuchin.
At Tuesday’s hearing, Kim, a freshman Democrat up for reelection in a contested race, told Mnuchin that moving forward on areas of agreement was “a great sentiment” — although he went on to highlight some Democratic priorities such as health insurance assistance that Republicans have not embraced.
Ahead of the hearing, Democrats on the subcommittee released a report showing the potential for significant waste in the small-business Paycheck Protection Program Congress created in March. The program distributed $530 billion to small businesses in an effort to keep their workers on payroll. The report found that more than $1 billion went to companies that may have improperly received multiple loans, nearly $100 million went to companies that have been barred from doing business with the government, and nearly $200 million went to companies that staffers found had been previously flagged by the federal government for performance or integrity issues.
The amount of potential waste identified in the report still constitutes a small fraction of the entire program, and Treasury and Small Business Administration officials have committed to auditing loans of more than $2 million. But the staffers behind the report said the loans to be audited constitute less than 1 percent of the total and wrote that “the Administration appears to lack the appropriate oversight mechanisms to identify and root out these problems.”
Mnuchin disputed this allegation in his testimony Tuesday, and Republicans on the subcommittee issued a competing report that praised the administration for demonstrating “how the government can work with the private sector to quickly and efficiently get aid to those in need” by dispensing an unprecedented volume of loans in a short period of time to prevent catastrophic job losses at small businesses.
There continues to be disagreement over how effective the program has been in reducing unemployment. Trump and other administration officials still claim that the program helped small businesses retain or support 50 million jobs — something Trump again boasted during his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention — despite agreement among many experts that the number was likely far smaller due to the government’s faulty data collection methods.
A Post analysis of data on 4.9 million PPP loans released shows that many companies are reported to have “retained” far more workers than they employ. In other cases, the SBA’s jobs claim for entire industries surpasses the total number of workers in those sectors.
Jeff Stein contributed to this report.
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A resurgence of coronavirus cases in the United States is having a plateau effect on the economic recovery. The July 2020 jobs report from the government shows the pace of hiring has slowed significantly after a short-lived rebound in the spring. (Aug 6)
AP Domestic
WASHINGTON — White House negotiators say talks with congressional Democrats have fallen apart over a coronavirus stimulus package and they will recommend President Donald Trump take executive action this weekend on a number of programs aimed at helping Americans.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., met for more than two hours Friday with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows in a last-ditch attempt to salvage discussions now in their second week. But the effort was fruitless, with both sides admitting they were at a standstill with no real pathway forward.
“The president would like us to make the deal, but unfortunately we did not make any progress,” Mnuchin said after the two-hour meeting. “The chief and I will recommend to the president, based on our lack of activity today, to move forward with some executive orders.”
Mnuchin said he and Meadows would ask Trump to move forward on the orders over the weekend.
Trump has threatened to use executive orders to extend a handful of programs Americans have been relying on since the coronavirus began pummeling the U.S. economy in March if the two sides couldn’t come to a deal. The legality of such orders remain unclear and the president has largely skirted questions about the constitutionality of acting unilaterally on such programs.
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What both sides want: $1,200 checks? Money for schools? Breaking down what Republicans and Democrats want in the coronavirus stimulus plan
‘Insulin or groceries’: How reduced unemployment affects struggling Americans from California to Mississippi
Mnuchin said the president’s executive actions may address at least three relief programs that were established in previous coronavirus legislation:
- Unemployment: A $600 weekly unemployment benefit expired July 31, leaving many out-of-work Americans in a state of financial limbo. It’s unclear whether the president may extend the benefit or lower it to a smaller amount, something many Republicans have requested.
- Evictions: A federal moratorium on evictions expired July 24, putting at risk the tenants of more than 12 million rental units nationwide if they miss payments. The president has said he wants to extend these protections to ensure renters are not evicted due to the pandemic
- Student loans: Congress also suspended payments on some student loans due to the virus. The provision is set to expire at the end of September. The president is expected to extend its expiration, though its unclear for how long.
Along with the three programs listed by Mnuchin, the president has also said he could act on a payroll tax cut, an idea he’s pushed for months without success.
“It’s going to take a little bit of time for us to finalize these and process that, but we’ll do them as quickly as we can because the president wants action,” Mnuchin said of the executive orders.
Both sides had set a self-imposed deadline to come to an agreement by Friday. And the president, later Friday, said the White House would be “going in a different way.”
Pelosi and Schumer only interested in Bailout Money for poorly run Democrat cities and states. Nothing to do with China Virus! Want one trillion dollars. No interest. We are going a different way!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 7, 2020
“Pelosi and Schumer only interested in Bailout Money for poorly run Democrat cities and states,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “Nothing to do with China Virus! Want one trillion dollars. No interest. We are going a different way!”
The state and local funding the president highlighted had become a major point of contention in the negotiations, with Democrats standing firm on wanting about $1 trillion, arguing many police, firefighters and other taxpayer-funded workers were in danger of being laid off.
Republicans, in their own proposed stimulus package, had set aside nothing for local governments that saw their revenues gutted due to the pandemic. They argued many of the states needing funds were run by Democrats who for years had poorly managed budgets. The White House upped their offer to $150 billion during the negotiations, but it was quickly turned down by Democrats.
“If we can reach an agreement on state and local and unemployment, we will reach an overall deal and if we can’t, we can’t,” Mnuchin said after Friday’s meeting, highlighting how central the issue has been to the negotiations.
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The US recently topped 4 million confirmed COVID-19 cases and now has reached another unenviable milestone.
USA TODAY
Layoffs:1.2M workers file for unemployment amid COVID-19 spikes, pushing total in crisis above 55M
Democrats painted a grim portrait of the pathway forward, saying Republicans refused to meet in the middle on a host of issues.
“It was a disappointing meeting,” Schumer said afterwards. “We are asking them to come back and negotiate but (they need to) realize, the House is Democratic, they need a majority of Democratic votes in the Senate. Meet us in the middle! God sakes please, for the sake of America, meet us in the middle.”
When asked about the next steps on a bill, Pelosi said she asked White House negotiators to come back “when you are ready to give us a higher number.”
Mnuchin said there were no plans for another meeting, but he left open the door for further negotiations, telling reporters, “the chief and I will be back here any time to listen to new proposals.”
Over the days of talks, both sides have made a series of concessions but the changes have been met with fairly blunt rejections. Pelosi on Friday said Democrats offered to cut down the overall price tag of their proposal by $1 trillion, an attempt to meet in the middle between the House’s $3 trillion package and the Senate’s $1 trillion measure.
Mnuchin called that offer a “non-starter.”
Mnuchin and Meadows have similarly made offers, such as ramping up funds for state and local governments, which Republicans originally designated nothing for, and more cash for those claiming unemployment.
Democrats have rejected the offers and said they were not enough to meet the needs of struggling families.
The Democratic plan: House passes $3 trillion coronavirus stimulus plan, faces pushback in Republican-led Senate
The GOP proposal: Mitch McConnell unveils $1 trillion pandemic aid package to criticisms from Republicans and Democrats
The Democratic-led House passed the HEROES Act, a roughly $3.4 trillion bill that would provide a second round of direct payments to millions of Americans, nearly $1 trillion to revenue-strapped states and local governments and billions for housing and food assistance.
The Republican-controlled Senate introduced its counter-proposal, the HEALS Act, a $1.1 trillion package that also includes direct payments but no federal aid for housing, food or state and local governments. It has yet to pass the chamber.
Schumer, at a news conference Friday afternoon, took aim at Meadows, a former member of Congress and leader of the staunch conservative House Freedom Caucus, saying he was “from the Tea Party” and that there were “20 Republicans in the Senate greatly influenced by them (the Tea Party)” who did not want to spend more on coronavirus relief.
He said Meadows’ role in the talks were another hurdle compared to previous discussions on past coronavirus bills, saying his “positions are quite hardened and non-compromising, more so than Mnuchin.”
The impasse in negotiations comes as the country continues to feel economic pain caused by the coronavirus pandemic, raising the stakes for Congress and the White House to rapidly find a solution.
Friday’s jobs report showed the unemployment rate falling to 10.2% in July from 11.1% in June. The Labor Department said Thursday about 1.2 million people filed initial claims for unemployment insurance over the previous week, bringing the total number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits to 55 million since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.
‘I’m too old to find a new career’: More than half of Americans fear job losses
A $600 boost to unemployment benefits introduced in the last major coronavirus relief bill in March also expired last week, throwing millions of Americans who relied on the added benefit into financial limbo.
Republicans have floated the possibility of a short-term deal to extend a reduced boost to unemployment benefits and reinstate a moratorium on some evictions, but Democrats have rejected the possibility.
Pelosi reiterated Democrats’ opposition to a short-term extension of benefits in a Friday MSNBC interview, calling it an “excuse” for Republicans to say they acted.
Contributing: Michael Collins
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Senate Minority leader Senator Chuck Schumer told reporters “we are not going to give up. We are not going to walk away,” as negotiations continue on a huge coronavirus relief bill. (August 4)
AP Domestic
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]]>Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin rejected an offer from Democratic leaders for a roughly $2 trillion coronavirus relief package amid growing concerns that negotiations between the two parties are on the brink of collapsing.
“That’s a non-starter,” Mnuchin said Friday.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi proposed the $2 trillion price tag during a closed-door meeting on Thursday, an attempt to reconcile the two party’s drastically different aid proposals. Democrats offered to reduce their $3.4 trillion aid package by $1 trillion if Republicans would agree to raise their estimated $1 trillion proposal by the same amount.
WASHINGTON IMPASSE ON CORONAVIRUS RELIEF THREATENS US ECONOMY
That would result in legislation that costs somewhere between $2 trillion and $2.4 trillion.
“Yesterday I offered to them, we’ll take down a trillion if you add a trillion in,” Pelosi said. “They said absolutely not.”
NEARLY HALF OF US JOBS LOST TO CORONAVIRUS COULD BE GONE PERMANENTLY, POLL FINDS
The clock is ticking for both parties to meet their self-imposed Friday deadline to cut a deal on the next round of emergency aid for American families and businesses. If they miss it, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows has suggested there’s “no sense” in continuing discussion.
The top negotiators, Meadows, Mnuchin, Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, met again Friday afternoon on Capitol Hill. Pelosi said she would reiterate her $2 trillion offer.
“I will once again make the offer: We’ll come down a trillion, you go up a trillion, and then we’ll be within range of each other,” Pelosi said. “But again, this a very different set of values across the table.”
Pelosi said the proposed $1 trillion cut in Democrats’ plan would largely stem from shortening the length of some of the aid program. Schumer suggested the plan could not go below $2 trillion, or it would lose Democrats’ support, and couldn’t go above $2 trillion, or it would lose Republicans’ support.
TRUMP THREATENS TO TAKE EXECUTIVE ACTION IF DEAL ON CORONAVIRUS STIMULUS BILL NOT REACHED SOON
“That’s what compromise is all about,” he said.
The impasse in negotiations puts at risk potentially trillions of dollars in aid for families, businesses and the U.S. economy, including a fresh round of $1,200 stimulus checks, extra unemployment aid for millions of out-of-work Americans, $100 billion to help reopen schools and relief for cash-strapped state and local governments.
Whether to extend the supplemental $600 a week in jobless aid has proven to be a key sticking point in negotiations. Democrats have maintained the sweetened benefits need to be extended through the end of the year, while Republicans have argued that it disincentivizes Americans from returning to jobs that pay less, a notion economists have disputed.
GOP lawmakers have proposed a $200-a-week replacement instead until states could adopt a more complicated system that would cap aid at 70% of a worker’s former salary.
MCCONNELL OPENS DOOR TO EXTENDING $600 UNEMPLOYMENT BOOST
Another area of contention is aid for schools — Pelosi said in a letter to House colleagues they’re “a couple hundred billion dollars apart” — relief for cash-strapped state and local governments and food aid.
Affter nearly two weeks of talks that have yielded no substantial progress, President Trump has threatened to act unilaterally and issue executive orders to continue expanded unemployment benefits, reinstate an eviction moratorium, cut payroll taxes and continue a suspension of student loan repayments.
However, some of his proposals would likely face legal challenges. The Constitution gives Congress the power of federal spending, meaning that Trump does not have the legal authority to issue executive orders allocating how much money should be spent on the pandemic.
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]]>- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Sunday appeared on ABC News’ “This Week” and detailed some of the ongoing negotiations between Republicans and Democrats over a forthcoming coronavirus relief package.
- Republicans and Democrats have hit a wall over the since-expired $600 weekly boost to federal unemployment benefits, which was part of the $2 trillion CARES Act passed in March.
- Republicans, including President Trump, have said they don’t plan to extend the initial boost because they believe it “paid people to stay home.”
- Mnuchin said Republicans had offered a one-week extension of the $600 per week increase to federal unemployment benefits but said Democrats are more focused on including that as part of a longterm solution.
- Pelosi blamed the president for the continued negotiations and said the GOP had offered a $200 weekly boost that “does not meet the needs of America’s working families.”
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
Democrats and Republicans are still stuck in negotiations over a forthcoming coronavirus relief stimulus package and continue to clash over how to extend a weekly boost to federal unemployment benefits that ended at the end of last month.
During appearances on ABC News’ “This Week,” both House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, and the Trump-appointed Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said discussions about extending the $600 weekly boost to federal unemployment benefits, which was passed in March as part of the $2 trillion CARES Act, are at the center of their ongoing negotiations.
“He’s the one who is standing in the way of that,” the House speaker said Sunday of President Trump. “We have been for the $600. They have a $200 proposal, which does not meet the needs of America’s working families.”
White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said last week that the president didn’t support continuing the expanded $600 per week federal benefit, which was enacted in March and expired at the end of July, because it “paid people to stay home.” In some cases, Americans were earning more money under the expanded federal benefit than they were at their previous jobs.
“The $600 is essential,” Pelosi said. “It’s essential for America’s working families. And, again, to condescend, to disrespect their motivation is so amazing how insistent the Republicans are about working family and their $600 and how cavalier they are about other money that is going out”
—This Week (@ThisWeekABC) August 2, 2020
Multiple people who spoke with Business Insider’s Rhea Mahbubani expressed concerns about making ends meet now that the $600 boost had ended.
But Mnuchin told “This Week” moderator Martha Raddatz that Democrats have rejected GOP attempts to temporarily extend the unemployment boost by one week while the parties continue their negotiations.
“We proposed a one-week extension at $600 so that while we negotiate a longer-term solution, at least all those people don’t lose their money, and I’m surprised that the Democrats won’t agree to that,” Mnuchin said. “They are insistent on having this as part of a larger deal.”
Mnuchin said Sunday that he wouldn’t elaborate on specifics of their negotiations with Democrats, but said that he and Meadows had so far made “three or four different offers that deal with the enhanced unemployment.”
—This Week (@ThisWeekABC) August 2, 2020
“I think on the concept, we absolutely agree on enhanced unemployment,” he added. “We want to fix the issue where in some cases people are overpaid and we want to make sure there’s the right incentives.”
As Raddatz noted, economists at Yale University found no evidence that the $600 weekly jobless benefits Congress reduced employment. Mnuchin retorted that he attended Yale but didn’t agree with that assessment.
Both Pelosi and Mnuchin said the Sunday negotiations were their most productive yet, ABC News reported, though Pelosi said she couldn’t provide a timeline for when she anticipated the parties would reach an agreement.
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]]>House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows made clear in separate interviews Sunday that they remain far apart on a coronavirus relief deal that would restore expired unemployment benefits for millions of Americans.
The three spoke a day after a rare weekend meeting at the Capitol yielded some signs of progress. They plan to meet again on Monday, but pointed to multiple areas of disagreement that suggest consensus remains elusive, even while saying they would continue to work toward a deal.
“We still have a long ways to go,” Meadows said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “I’m not optimistic that there will be a solution in the very near term.”
Pelosi (D-Calif.), who has been pushing for a comprehensive bill to address multiple economic and health care needs, insisted the administration continues to resist a public health strategy to attack the virus, which is surging in many states.
“That is one of the points we still have not come to any agreement on,” Pelosi said on ABC’s “This Week.”
Mnuchin defended the administration’s response to the pandemic, while pointing to Democrats’ demands for $1 trillion in new state and local aid as a non-starter.
“The Democrats right now are insisting on over $1 trillion to state and local governments, and that’s something we’re not going to do,” Mnuchin said on ABC.
Pelosi, Mnuchin and Meadows have met almost daily for the past week at the Capitol along with Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) as they try to craft a new coronavirus relief bill.
After struggling to reach agreement among themselves on an overall bill, Republicans and administration officials have been pushing for a short-term fix to address the expiration of $600 weekly enhanced unemployment benefits, which lapsed Friday for some 30 million workers.
Democrats continue to resist a short-term approach, and rejected an administration proposal to extend the $600 benefit for an additional week to give more time to negotiate. Pelosi has said that idea was pointless since the parties were not close to a deal.
“We will be close to an agreement when we have an agreement,” Pelosi said Sunday.
Republicans have proposed reducing the $600 weekly payment to $200, or adopting a formula that would amount to replacing about two-thirds of a worker’s wages before they were unemployed. They have consistently argued the $600 enhanced benefit, which comes on top of whatever benefit is provided by state unemployment systems, is so generous it provides a disincentive for jobless people to return to the workplace.
Mnuchin repeated that argument Sunday, while acknowledging it was not always the case.
“Let’s just face it, we know factually there are cases where people are overpaid. There are cases where people are underpaid,” Mnuchin said.
For many low-wage workers, the benefits have amounted to a bump in pay from what they were making at previous jobs. Studies have estimated between 40 and 68 percent of people on unemployment insurance are making more with the extra $600 than they were previously at work.
But some preliminary studies on the issue have not found the temporary bump is a disincentive for a noticeable number of workers. A recent study by three Yale economists found workers receiving the extra benefits returned to work at roughly the same rate as others, finding “no evidence that more generous benefits disincentivized work.”
Pelosi suggested Democrats could be open to an approach that reduced the $600 over time as the unemployment rate declines, an idea that has been embraced by a number of congressional Democrats.
“The amount of money that is given as an enhancement for unemployment insurance should relate to the rate of unemployment, so as that goes down you can consider something less than $600, but in this agreement it’s $600,” Pelosi said.
Many economists believe the expiration of the enhanced benefits, which were approved in March as part of Congress’ $2 trillion Cares Act, will act as a drain on the economy, since the extra money allowed workers to pay rent and buy groceries and other necessities. A moratorium on evictions also recently expired, and the administration has discussed renewing that as part of a short-term fix that could include other elements as well, such as more money for schools and the small-business Paycheck Protection Program.
House Democrats passed a $3 trillion bill in May that would have extended the $600 enhanced benefits through January. They are incensed that Republicans waited months to start negotiating again, only to quickly run up against the unemployment insurance deadline and start demanding a short-term solution.
Mnuchin defended the GOP approach, saying it made sense to wait and see how the programs Congress approved in the spring had worked. Four bipartisan bills passed in March and April injected around $3 trillion into the economy.
“That has never been done in the history of time,” Mnuchin said.
But now, Mnuchin said, “The president is determined to spend what we need to spend and we’re acting very quickly now. … We’re going to work every day until we reach a reasonable agreement that’s good for the American public.”
On Thursday, the Commerce Department reported that the U.S. economy shrank by a record 9.5 percent from April through June. Most lawmakers of both parties agree on the need for more action from Congress, although Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has said about 20 Senate Republicans believe no additional action is needed, in part because of deficit concerns.
Jeff Stein contributed to this report.
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]]>The White House opened discussions with top congressional Democrats on Monday night aimed at closing a gap of more than $2 trillion in their competing coronavirus relief proposals, with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell dismissing Democrats’ costlier plan as a “socialist manifesto.”
Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows met at the Capitol with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer just hours after Mr. McConnell introduced Senate Republicans’ rescue package.
The GOP plan calls for reducing emergency federal unemployment benefits from $600 to $200 per week. Democrats want to extend the $600 payments, which are set to expire on Friday, through January.
The negotiations come as cases of COVID-19 are surging around the nation; 11 states last weekend hit records for coronavirus hospitalizations. Unemployment benefit claims rose slightly last week for the first time since March, to 1.4 million, while states also grapple with how and when to reopen schools.
Some states are weighing new stay-at-home orders. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat, announced that bars would be closed for two weeks and restaurants would need to reduce capacity.
President Trump didn’t comment publicly on the Republicans‘ plan Monday, but said some governors still aren’t doing enough to reopen.
“I really do believe a lot of the governors should be opening up states that they’re not opening,” Mr. Trump told reporters at a biotech company in Morrisville, N.C.
Mr. McConnell said the three-part GOP plan, which totals about $1 trillion, is “tailored and targeted” to help students get back to school, workers get back to work, and to defeat the virus with expanded testing and treatments. Republicans named it the HEALS Act, for health, economic assistance, liability and schools.
“We have one foot in the pandemic and one foot in the recovery,” the Kentucky Republican said. “The American people need more help. They need it to be comprehensive, and they need it to be carefully tailored to this crossroad.”
The GOP proposal, backed by the White House, also would provide another round of direct payments of $1,200 to most Americans (plus $500 for each dependent), and more than $100 billion for schools to reopen safely.
Democrats want to give qualifying adults $1,200 each, plus $1,200 per child up to three children. They also want to spend $430 billion on schools, including $50 billion for child care.
The GOP plan would add money to the popular Paycheck Protection Program, which helps struggling employers keep workers on the payroll, and provide liability protection for businesses reopening during the pandemic.
Democrats are calling for nearly $1 trillion in aid to states and local communities in their overall package, which would cost about $3.5 trillion. States and cities would get no new money under the GOP plan, but they would get more flexibility in spending money that was already allocated.
Heading into the closed-door negotiations, Mr. Schumer, New York Democrat, called the Republicans‘ proposal “totally inadequate.” He complained, for example, that the GOP didn’t include hazard pay for frontline workers.
Mr. Schumer also blamed Republicans for a delay in their proposal that allowed a federal moratorium on evictions to lapse, and for putting 20 to 30 million people receiving unemployment in limbo.
“The White House and Senate Republicans couldn’t get their act together and wasted precious time,” Mr. Schumer said. “They can’t even put one bill together, they are so divided.”
About half of Senate Republicans are expected to vote against any rescue package, which would be the fifth approved by Congress since March, already totaling nearly $3 trillion.
Mr. McConnell said $1 trillion is an “appropriate” amount to add to the national debt, and he stressed liability protections against frivolous lawsuits must be in the legislation, noting there have already been 3,500 lawsuits filed.
One of the biggest disputes between the rival plans is the size and scope of unemployment insurance. Republicans are keen to reduce the $600 federal payments, which are in addition to regular state benefits, saying they pay many workers more than their normal wages.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley, Iowa Republican, said unemployment benefits in the GOP package would be reduced to $200 through September. In October, the payment would be replaced with a benefit of up to $500 that, when combined with the state unemployment insurance, would replace 70% of lost wages.
“This is a much more responsible approach that we didn’t have time to work out in the first CARES Act,” Mr. Grassley said.
Democrats quickly pushed back on lowering the unemployment benefits from $600 to $200 a week.
“People can lose their homes,” said Sen. Sherrod Brown, Ohio Democrat. “Essentially, the Trump-McConnell plan tells people they are on their own. Their plans don’t come close to being enough.”
The GOP proposal includes a tax credit for businesses to use for cleaning and purchasing equipment needed to maintain a safe workplace for employees and customers. Mr. Grassley said there will be more money in the relief bill than the CARES Act approved in March to reimburse local government and nonprofits so layoffs can be prevented.
Sen. Susan Collins, Maine Republican, drafted a proposal along with Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida to allow small businesses to receive more PPP funding. Small businesses with 300 or fewer employees that have had revenue decrease by 50% or more could apply for the new round of PPP forgivable loans.
“There are so many small employers and their employees who have been kept afloat by the first PPP loan they received, but need a second one to survive this persistent pandemic,” Ms. Collins said.
Sen. John Cornyn, Texas Republican, drafted a proposal to protect businesses, schools and healthcare workers from frivolous lawsuits.
“Across the country, we are seeing lawsuits rolling in targeting the very healthcare workers who are on the frontlines,” he said, adding that the measure would not be “a blanket liability shield” against cases of gross negligence or intentional misconduct.
Under the GOP proposal, $16 billion would go to states to ramp up testing with an emphasis on schools, employers, child care facilities, and nursing homes. Another $26 billion would pay for developing and distributing therapeutics, diagnostics and vaccines.
There will also be $20 billion in assistance to farmers and ranchers, and $30 billion for defense contractors.
Before Senate Republicans unveiled their proposal, Mrs. Pelosi blasted their “piecemeal” approach and blamed 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 said 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.”
Conservative groups continue to push for cutting off the expanded federal unemployment benefit, and for crafting a school choice proposal as part of the education aid.
Club for Growth President David McIntosh said his group is “pushing very hard” with the White House and Senate Republicans to include in any final agreement a direct payment to parents of up to $10,000 per child to pay for private, religious, charter schools or home schooling, as public schools fail to open.
“Let them decide how best to craft an education program for their students,” Mr. McIntosh told reporters.
He said his group has sponsored polling that shows the proposal is a “strong positive” for the president and Republicans in swing states.
“It’s immensely popular with the Republican base,” he said.
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