Crunch time for COVID-19 relief as bipartisan bills unveiled

WASHINGTON — A bipartisan group of lawmakers unveiled a detailed COVID-19 aid proposal on Monday in hopes it would serve as a model for its battling leaders to follow as they try to negotiate a final agreement on a new round of virus relief.

The dozen or so lawmakers unveiled two bills. One is a $748 billion aid package containing money for struggling businesses, the unemployed, schools, and for vaccine distribution. The other bill proposes a $160 billion aid package for state and local governments that’s favored by Democrats and GOP-sought provisions shielding businesses from COVIDrelated lawsuits. But agreement proved impossible and most Democrats opposed a compromise on the liability issue forged by GOP Sen. Rob Portman of

Ohio.

The path forward for their proposals — and for COVID-19 aid more generally — remains unclear. Parallel negotiations over virus relief and government funding are proceeding on the leadership level involving House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and that’s where any agreement is likely to be forged.

Outstanding issues in the leadership talks include a potential second round of direct payments to individuals, a plan for $300 bonus unemployment benefits, state and local aid, and the GOP-sought liability shield against COVID-19-related lawsuits.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said she hoped that top Capitol Hill leaders and the administration will use the proposals as the basis for a COVID-relief package “that is urgently needed by our struggling families, our hard-hit small businesses, our stressed-out health care providers, our overwhelmed Postal Service, our challenged schools, and so many others.“

A key tradeoff involves aid to states and local governments, a top Pelosi priority, and the liability shield, a top demand of McConnell. The Kentucky Republican has suggested an allor-nothing approach in which the fate of both ideas is linked to the other — either both are added or both are dropped. Pelosi is insisting, so far, that state and local aid be added, demanding that McConnell compromise on his pet provision. Agreement remains elusive.

But progress was being reported on another key front, too, as lawmakers cobbled together a year-end catchall funding package that will be the basis for the last significant legislation of the Trump presidency.

There’s a hoped-for deadline of midnight Friday to deliver the completed package to President Donald Trump, which is when a partial government shutdown would arrive with the expiration of last week’s temporary funding bill. But there’s no guarantee that the massive year-end measure will be completed in time. If the talks drag, further temporary bills could be needed.

Meanwhile, negotiations on a $1.4 trillion catchall spending bill are “essentially finished,“said a congressional aide participating in the talks. While details are closely held, “the status quo is prevailing.“That means Trump would get another $1.4 billion or so for a final installment to continue construction of his long-sought U.S.-Mexico border wall.