Do your jobs

Congress and the White House must reach an agreement now on a COVID-19 relief bill.

A week after millions of out-ofwork Americans lost a $600 weekly unemployment pay boost that helped them survive the COVID-19 economic collapse, Congress and the White House still haven’t reached an agreement on a new stimulus bill.

The fates of financial aid for businesses, schools, states and local governments, as well as a moratorium on evictions for renters who participate in federal housing assistance programs or live in properties with federally backed mortgages, also hang in the balance.

Congress and President Donald Trump effectively slashed the jobless aid and abandoned the other obligations in the middle of the pandemic when they let the CARES Act expire in late July with nothing to replace it.

And yet, talks remained stalled Thursday with neither side expressing much hope for an immediate settlement.

This is unconscionable. More than a week after the editorial board warned that there is no time to waste, the process remains in a stalemate while the situation gets worse.

Congressional leaders and administration officials must work around the clock to hammer out a deal, not just to ease the suffering of so many but to save the nation’s economy from cratering to depths that could take decades to overcome. If a tentative Friday deadline isn’t met, all parties must work through the weekend so a bill can be passed early next week. A solution shouldn’t be out of reach. The Democrat-led House passed a $3 trillion relief package in May, and a divided Republican caucus in the Senate has backed a $1 trillion version. Now, White House officials and Democrats have huddled for days seeking to find a compromise that will keep Democrats on board and win over enough Senate Republicans.

The crisis demands urgency. An estimated 32 million people — about 1 in 5 workers — were drawing unemployment in July, many having been displaced from jobs that no longer exist and may never return. Millions of families are facing eviction notices that could push homeless figures to levels unseen since the Great Depression.

The idea of holding back on another round of stimulus in hopes that the pandemic will go away and things will get better is delusional.

The CARES Act was signed into law in March when the president was predicting the coronavirus would be defeated and “the country opened up” by Easter. The United States was reporting 160,530 confirmed COVID cases and 2,939 deaths at the end of March. Today, the nation is closing in on 5 million infections and nearly 160,000 fatalities.

Things clearly are not getting better. People need help, and they need it now.

An early sticking point centered on whether the $600 a week in “enhanced unemployment” was dissuading workers from returning to their jobs. That notion has been debunked by recent studies. And many economists see the payments as an efficient way to keep much-needed dollars flowing through a system being stomped by COVID-19 shutdowns and customers staying at home.

No one pretends the weekly aid can last for ever. But it must last long enough to help America avoid a catastrophic recession. The money was paying rent, groceries, utilities, car loans and credit card bills. Cutting off that cash hurts everyone in the supply chain, suppressing consumer spending when the economy most needs it.

It’s clear that payments are a net positive for the unemployed and for the economy. Reaching an agreement on the exact sum and duration shouldn’t derail the deal.

The same is true for reaching an agreement on money for state and local funding. Put the money where it will do the most good for those suffering while helping the economy begin to rebound.

This all should have been done well before the CARES Act expired.

The negotiations wasted time in the beginning with the distraction of administration requests for $1.75 billion for a new FBI building, more than $1 billion for the Pentagon and even $400 million to remodel the West Wing of the White House. This is not the place for political posturing and nest-feathering.

Strip everything that isn’t directly related to COVID-19 relief, put aside partisan politics and finally show the American people that the government can actually get things done.

There is no time to waste. Get it done.