White House chief of staff Mark Meadows says it’s Friday or bust for a coronavirus aid deal
WASHINGTON – Friday is likely the deadline for negotiators to reach an agreement in principle on a COVID-19 relief package, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said after meeting with GOP senators Wednesday.
That leaves slightly more than two days for the Trump administration and congressional leaders to broker a bipartisan deal on more than $1 trillion in additional funding to help address the health care and economic impacts from a deadly virus that continues to spread throughout the United States.
“I think at this point, either we are going to get serious about negotiating, and get an agreement in principle, or I become extremely doubtful that we will be able to make a deal, if it goes well beyond Friday,” Meadows said after leaving a closed-door lunch with Senate Republicans on Wednesday.
“We’ve been spending so much time together that if you’re not making progress, there’s no sense to continue.”
A deal by week’s end on the parameters would give staff time to draft the legislation in advance of floor action next week. Speaker Nancy Pelosi offered a similar timetable in remarks to the American Hotel & Lodging Association during a webinar, saying she hopes a bill will be ready “within the next 10 days.”
The Senate’s top Republican confirmed Wednesday afternoon that the chamber would remain in session next week to process an aid package. Senators had planned to leave town by Friday and return to Washington after Labor Day.
“We’re certainly going to be in next week,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell said. “We’ll see what happens after that.”
Missouri Republican Sen. Roy Blunt agreed with the decision to set a deadline on talks between Meadows, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer.
“At some point you have to set a deadline or just continue this Kabuki dance every day, and nobody wants to do that,” Blunt said.
While few details have emerged from the closed-door talks, Pelosi said Wednesday that Democrats would be open to a provision that President Donald Trump wants to provide companies the ability to fully write off the cost of business meals, doubling the current 50% deduction through the end of the year, but only if Republicans agree to provide funding for food assistance for low-income individuals.
“We do have our concern about the meal deduction, because we’re saying we’re OK with that, but why don’t you want to have any more money for food stamps?” she said.
“We can’t say we’ll give you a meal deduction and we have starving kids in America.”
Pelosi also said Democrats are interested in having tax credits in the bill to help businesses set up healthy workplaces, but she said they have yet to agree with Republicans on the details.
Democrats in their House-passed bill included a 30% payroll credit for pandemic-related expenses, increased to 50% for essential workers. Republicans proposed a 50% payroll tax credit for expenses incurred to protect workers from COVID-19, capped based on number of employees.
The parties are also still working out the details of another round of small-business loans to be issued through the popular Paycheck Protection Program, Pelosi said. As negotiators look to make the second round more targeted to smaller businesses with higher revenue losses, Democrats are trying to ensure that the bill has guardrails so women- and minority-owned businesses are not disadvantaged.
Another area where Pelosi said negotiators are “having a back-and-forth” is on housing provisions, including an eviction moratorium for renters and mortgage forbearance for homeowners.
“There’s not a whole lot of interest in helping with forbearance on residential, although we think there should be,” she said. “But nonetheless, we’re having some conversations about the rental part. When we talk about the commercial side of it, we’re not very far along the way. But that’s where the biggest hit is.”
She also for the first time acknowledged that the total cost of the package will be less than what House Democrats passed in May.
“We have a big, strong package, $3.4 trillion,” Pelosi said. “Now we anticipate that we will negotiate at some other place moneywise, but that’s what we need.”
Shortly after Pelosi spoke to the American Hotel & Lodging Association, she went into a meeting with Meadows, Mnuchin, Schumer and U.S. Postmaster General Louis Dejoy.
Dejoy recently implemented sweeping operational and procedural changes at the Postal Service in an effort to cut costs, but those have resulted in significant mail delays.
Schumer said Tuesday that delays and potential impacts on the election, which is expected to have record numbers of mail-in ballots, were on the agenda for the meeting.
The Postal Service, which has not received tax dollars to cover its operating expenses since 1971, has long-standing financial issues.
In 2019, the supposedly selfsustaining federal agency reported losses nearing $9 billion. Some of that pain is, in part, of Congress’ own making. In 2006, Congress enacted legislation requiring the Postal Service to annually prefund the future retirement health benefits of its current employees. That multibillion-dollar expenditure was put in place at the beginning of a major drop in revenues as the volume of firstclass mail plummeted. The USPS has incurred annual losses since 2007.
The coronavirus pandemic has also meant a reduction in some mail, but also an increase in package shipping, which temporarily postponed an imminent cash crisis that the
Postal Service had predicted might strike earlier this summer.
The agency warns it will run out of money by the end of September without help from Congress. The service reported a $4.5 billion loss for the quarter ending in March, before the full effects of the shutdown took hold, and expects losses totaling more than $22 billion over the next 18 months.
The coronavirus relief package that House Democrats passed in mid-may would set aside $25 billion to keep the mail flowing. In March, Congress approved a $10 billion loan for the service. But those funds have sat untouched because restrictions put in place by the Trump administration.
Last week, the Treasury Department and the Post Office announced a deal that would allow USPS to tap into that loan, which was included in March’s approximately $2 trillion coronavirus aid package. But rural senators, including Montana Democrat Jon Tester, have raised alarm bells about potential closures of post offices and service reductions.
Blunt said Wednesday that Senate Republicans would be open to including funding for the Postal Service in the next coronavirus relief package that is being negotiated, but he wouldn’t share a dollar amount he would accept.
Service changes imposed by
Dejoy last month include orders that mail be kept until the next day if postal distribution centers are running late and the elimination of overtime for hundreds of thousands of postal workers.
Widespread mail delays have prompted concerns about election mail. Record numbers of voters are expected to cast mail-in ballots this year because of the pandemic.
The House Oversight and Reform Committee has called Dejoy to testify at a September hearing focused on “the need for on-time mail delivery during the ongoing pandemic and upcoming election.”