Where do the second round of stimulus checks stand?

A second round of coronavirus stimulus checks remains in limbo as August draws to a close without an agreement among lawmakers on a relief package.

Talks about the relief package, which is expected to include stimulus checks, resumed last week, Nexstar/the Associated Press reported Sunday. But Democrats and Republicans remain locked in a stalemate and unable to reach a compromise on spending.

In mid-May the House of Representatives passed the Democrats’ $3 trillion coronavirus aid bill, the Heroes Act, that was never voted on in the Senate. Senate Republicans introduced their own $1 trillion package, the Health, Economic Assistance, Liability Protection and Schools, or HEALS, Act in late July, McClatchy News reported.

Both plans include another round of the $1,200 relief payments that were sent to individuals under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security, or CARES, Act earlier this year. The HEALS Act includes another $500 for dependents, as the CARES Act did, and the Heroes

Act includes $1,200 for dependents.

The White House on Friday offered a $1.3 trillion relief bill. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., turned it down, saying it wouldn’t provide enough funding to help Americans need during the COVID-19 crisis, The Hill reported.

On Sunday, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows criticized Pelosi’s rejection of the offer during an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” blaming her for stalled negotiations.

“Here’s the problem: She puts forth a number, suggests that she came down and yet she’s willing to turn down $1.3 trillion of help that goes to the American people because she would rather them have nothing than to give way on what her fantasy might be,” he said during the interview.

But Pelosi has said Democrats are willing to meet the White House and Senate Republicans at $2.2 trillion in funding and that, once they are willing to meet in the middle, “we can sit down and talk.”

“They have to move. They have to move,” she told reporters during a news conference last week. “Why should there be a bill that has far less what the public needs? We have that responsibility. They’re just going to have to come up with more money.”

The CARES Act, which was signed into law in March, was a $2.2 trillion bill.

Meadows told “Meet the Press” on Sunday the White House won’t go up from $1.3 trillion.

“Listen, we’re not going to negotiate here because the speaker’s been very clear,” he said.