FUNDING FOUND
Congress averts shutdown for two days; economic relief bill gets closer
Congressional lawmakers averted a midpandemic government shutdown late Friday by passing a short-term spending bill that also bought them more time to hammer out disagreements over a long-delayed package of economic relief for coronavirus-ravaged Americans.
The temporary funding bill, which keeps the government open at current spending levels through midnight Sunday, breezed through the House in a 320-60 vote. The Senate passed the bill via unanimous consent minutes later, and President Trump signed the bill late Friday.
But the narrowly avoided shutdown is not expected to bring any Christmas cheer to frustrated lawmakers.
They now head into a rare weekend session to produce an economic relief bill they hope can be attached to a long-term $1.4 trillion spending measure that keeps the government funded through September. Leaders from both parties hope to kill two birds with one stone by voting on that double-barreled proposal as soon as Sunday.
Top negotiators from both parties have agreed on the broad strokes of a $900 billion stimulus framework that would deliver $600 direct payments to most American taxpayers, provide a federal $300-per-week bonus to millions of unemployed workers, bankroll more than $300 billion in relief to small businesses and provide states with cash for COVID-19 vaccine distribution, among other provisions.
But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who leads the GOP in the grueling stimulus negotiations, admitted there are still loose ends that will need to be tied together over the weekend.
“Alas, we are not there yet,” McConnell said in a floor speech before the Senate granted unanimous consent to the short-term funding bill.
Some rank-and-file members are threatening to block passage of the larger stimulus bill over some specific price tags.
Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), usually at the opposite ends of political debates, are finding common ground in pushing for the direct stimulus checks to bring taxpayers $1,200 each instead of $600.
After saying he would not block the short-term bill, Sanders suggested he could oppose any long-term combo bill that doesn’t cut $1,200 checks for taxpayers.
“I will object to any amendment by the Senate to pass an omnibus appropriations bill and leave town before passing a COVID relief bill with substantial direct payment going to working people,” Sanders said on the floor. “The truth is that working families of this country today are probably in worse economic condition than at any time since the Great Depression ... That is unacceptable.”
The need for economic relief is indeed dire.
The U.S. recorded the highest number of new unemployment
claims on Thursday since September, and the virus is spiraling out of control across the country, with many states reimplementing restrictions on businesses to curb the spread as more than 3,000 Americans continue to die every day on average.
The direct payments snag, meanwhile, isn’t the only potential bump in the road.
An 11th-hour provision introduced Friday morning by Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) to curb the Federal Reserve’s emergency lending powers infuriated Democrats who said it appeared aimed at kneecapping President-elect Joe Biden’s incoming administration.
“Republicans were fine with this Fed power when Trump was president but now all of a sudden it’s bad,” tweeted Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.). “Almost like they want to use the COVID relief package to sabotage Biden’s presidency.”
The Toomey provision would terminate a Federal Reserve emergency loan program that allowed the central bank to free up more than $450 billion in credit for cash-strapped companies and local governments.
A senior Democratic aide involved in the stimulus talks said most other sticking points had been resolved when Toomey began pressing for the “purely political” provision.
Brian Deese, Biden’s incoming director of the White House National Economic Council, agreed the Fed lending authority should remain in place.
“Undermining that authority could mean less lending to Main Street businesses, higher unemployment and greater economic pain across the nation,” Deese said. “Congress’s good faith effort to deliver immediate relief should not be delayed by provisions that could put our future financial stability at risk.”
In addition to the wrangling over the Fed’s lending program, there’s some dispute over a pot of Federal Emergency Management Agency cash that Democrats want to include in the stimulus package.
Republicans say both the Fed program and the FEMA cash could be backdoor ways of appropriating budgetary bailouts for cash-strapped state and local governments long opposed by the GOP.
Democratic leaders dropped their demand for outright bailouts earlier this month in hopes of reaching a compromise with the relief-reluctant Republicans, even though states like New York may be forced to lay off thousands of government workers and implement deep budget cuts