Virus relief faces postelection uncertainty

WASHINGTON — Negotiations on a COVID-19 relief bill are inching forward, but it’s clear the window for action before the Nov. 3 election is closing and the issue will be tossed to a postelection lameduck session of Congress.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi spoke again Wednesday, but her office signaled no real progress, and she acknowledged for the first time publicly that the measure won’t pass before the election.

President Donald Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, accused Pelosi of slow-walking the talks. Trump’s most powerful Senate GOP ally, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, is warning against a costly deal that could drive a wedge between the president and fellow Republicans.

No one knows whether Election Day will bring much more clarity.

“I’m never very optimistic about the lame duck, and I’ve never been surprised,” said Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo. “You don’t get near as much done as you think you’re going to get done.”

Those Republicans willing to speculate about a Trump loss in two weeks say not to expect much, either.

“I think Democrats would want to wait until the new president is sworn in and do it then, and I think Republicans probably would say … the economy’s taking care of it,” said Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa.

At issue is a huge virus relief bill that would send another $1,200 direct payment to most Americans, restart bonus unemployment benefits, fund additional testing and vaccines, provide aid to schools and allocate money to states and local governments, a Democratic priority.

A $ 1.8 trillion rescue plan in March passed virtually unanimously. The current Pelosi-backed package is larger and has run into opposition from Republicans.

Pelosi remains optimistic, even after Washington was blanketed with reports that McConnell, R-Ky., has warned the White House against sealing a $2 trillion or so relief deal with Pelosi before the election.

“Let’s keep working so that we can do it after the election,” Pelosi said Wednesday on MSNBC.

“We obviously want to have a deal by Nov. 3,” Pelosi told SiriusXM radio. “That really is going to be up to whether the president can convince Mitch McConnell to do so.”

McConnell said that the GOPcontrolled Senate is not buying the need for legislation as large as Trump wanted. And Meadows told reporters that Pelosi is still too uncompromising.