Negotiators report progress on long-delayed COVID aid bill
WASHINGTON — Top Capitol Hill Republicans labored Tuesday to keep the price tag for a long-delayed COVID-19 aid package in check, seeking to prevail in a battle over help for state and local governments, while capping the cost of bonus jobless benefits and direct payments sought by Democrats.
Negotiations on COVID-19 relief intensified Tuesday after months of futility. The top four leaders of Congress met twice in hopes of finally cementing an agreement that would revive subsidies for businesses hit hard by the pandemic, help distribute new coronavirus vaccines, fund schools and renew soon-to-expire jobless benefits.
Exiting a post-dinner meeting in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s Capitol suite, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said the talks were continuing and a further meeting Tuesday night was likely. Schumer and Pelosi are pressing for more generous steps to help individuals struggling in the COVID-19 economy.
The uptick in activity could be a sign that an agreement is near, though COVID-19 relief talks have been notoriously difficult and Pelosi, D-Calif., continues to press for help for states and local governments whose budgets have been thrown out of balance by the pandemic. GOP leaders oppose the idea and say it’s the biggest sticking point from their perspective.
A top GOP negotiator said the leaders had essentially agreed to agree.
“We are still talking to each other and there is agreement that we are not going to leave here without the omni and the COVID package,” said McConnell, R-Ky., using Capitol Hill’s shorthand for a catchall, omnibus spending bill that would be joined with the COVID relief measure and a variety of other end-ofsession items.
Pressure for a deal is intense. Unemployment benefits run out Dec. 26 for more than 10 million people, many businesses are barely hanging on after nine months of the pandemic, and money is needed to distribute new vaccines that are finally offering hope for returning the country to normal.
McConnell is playing a strong hand in the lame-duck session and is pressuring Democrats to drop a much-sought $160 billion state and local government aid package. Several senior Democrats, including close allies of President-elect Joe Biden — who is eager for an agreement — have said they would go along now and fight for the aid next year.
McConnell says he’ll drop a demand for provisions shielding businesses from COVID-19-related lawsuits, a key priority, if Democrats agree to drop the $160 billion state and local aid package.
“We can live to fight another day on what we disagree on,” McConnell said Tuesday. “But we ought to go forward with what we can agree on.”
Pelosi has insisted for months that state and local aid would be in any final bill, but as time is running out, Democrats appear unwilling to hold the rest of the package hostage over the demand.
“We’re not going home until this is done,” Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W. Va., said on CNN Tuesday morning. “We’ve got to