Democrats crafting aid measure for states, cities

WASHINGTON — Although timing for the House’s return isn’t set, the outlines are emerging for a Democratic-driven bill to aid states and local governments and the Postal Service and boost contact tracing to track the coronavirus.

Democratic leaders promise that the House will deliver legislation to help state and local governments through the COVID-19 crisis as early as next week, though the measure is still being drafted by committee chairs and party leaders such as Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-calif.

No. 2 House Democrat Steny

Hoyer said Wednesday that party leadership is hoping for bipartisan backing for the upcoming bill, the fifth effort to respond to the devastation COVID-19 has delivered to the economy and U.S. life.

Hoyer said the House won’t return to Washington until there is a vote on the next coronavirus bill, saying “it could be as early as next week.”

The House is staying away because of the pandemic, although the Gop-controlled Senate is open.

Some Republicans such as Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah and a group of GOP governors want to be more generous to states confronting furloughs and cuts to services as revenues plummet and unemployment insurance and other costs spike.

But Senate Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell said Tuesday it’s time to push “pause” on more aid legislation — even as he repeated a “red line” demand that any new aid package include liability protections for hospitals, health care providers and businesses operating and reopening.

Senate Republicans also dislike President Donald Trump’s demand for a cut to Social Security payroll taxes as a salve for the economy.

“We haven’t had any discussion of that” on the tax-writing Finance Committee, panel Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-iowa, said Wednesday. “And I think I better wait till I talk to my colleagues.”