States, cities plead for more virus aid

Senate Republicans push back-to-work strategy

WASHINGTON — As local leaders are pleading for more federal aid amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Senate resumed session Monday with no immediate plans to consider a fresh round of relief.

Instead, Senate Republicans are focused on ending the pandemic’s stay-home economy by trimming unemployment benefits to push some of 41 million suddenly jobless Americans back to work when jobs return.

A bipartisan group of economists called on Congress on Monday to provide $1 trillion in additional aid to states and cities.

Republicans pushed ahead with the back-to-work strategy.

Rep. Kevin Kevin Brady of Texas, the top Republican on the Ways & Means Committee, introduced legislation for a return-to-work bonus — two additional weeks of an existing $600 weekly jobless benefit if recalled employees go back to workplaces. Senate Republicans are mulling a similar proposal.

Republicans worry that the $600 unemployment boost is preventing workers from returning to their jobs. They also want to develop a liability shield to protect businesses that do reopen from lawsuits related to COVID-19.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell has said the Senate won’t be considering the $3 trillion “grab bag” of the House-passed Heroes Act, which includes almost $1 trillion in aid to the states and cities.

Mcconnell on Monday urged the federal government to intervene if necessary to end the wave of national protests following the death of George Floyd in Minnesota.

Reading the names as he opened the Senate, Mcconnell said Floyd’s death, along with those of other black Americans do not appear to be simply three isolated incidents but rather “the latest chapter in our national struggle to make equal justice and equal protection under the law a fact of life for all Americans.”