Keeping jobless aid tricky path, Congress told

Mnuchin: Need action soon

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said Sunday that Congress might have to pass a narrow piece of legislation this week to ensure enhanced unemployment benefits don’t expire for millions of Americans.

But they both also said the slimmed-down legislation should include sweeping lawsuit protections demanded by businesses, a provision that Democrats have opposed for weeks. Democrats also oppose the White House push to extend the unemployment benefits at a dramatically reduced amount.

“We’re done,” Mnuchin said Sunday as he and Meadows left Capitol Hill after meeting with GOP staff.

Meadows said the White House was “looking for clarity” on a “handful” of remaining issues. “We have an agreement in principle,” he said.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has rejected the piecemeal approach, but time is running short because the temporary unemployment benefits are set to expire at the end of this week. The $600 weekly payments were approved by Congress in March.

Apart from jobless benefits, Mnuchin has said a new round of $1,200 direct payments to individual Americans will be based on the same formula as the previous aid bill. Then, people making $75,000 or less received the full amount and those making more than $75,000 received less, depending on their income. People earning above $100,000 did not qualify for the payment.

After weeks of inaction, White House officials have displayed a new sense of urgency about the economy in the past week amid signs that the recovery is slowing markedly.

In addition to new calls for a pared-down stimulus bill, White House officials are planning to push for an

eviction moratorium through the end of the year, according to a senior administration official. The Department of Housing and Urban Development is expected to be involved in that effort. A previous four-month moratorium expires at the end of this month.

White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow suggested an extension will be included. “We will lengthen it,” he said, without specifying for how long.

SLOW START

Bipartisan talks on the next coronavirus package have barely begun, and the White House and Senate Republicans haven’t even formally offered a GOP plan yet. House Democrats passed a bill in May that would extend the $600 weekly payments through January, as the unemployment rate remains above 11%.

Pelosi blasted the GOP inaction and said Democrats have been waiting to negotiate. “We’ve been anxious to negotiate for two months and 10 days when we put forward our proposal,” she said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “They’re in disarray, and that delay is causing suffering for America’s families.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., intends to roll out a $1 trillion package today covering a range of issues. But Democrats are demanding a bill three times that size, and McConnell has said it could take “a few weeks” to reach a deal.

“Honestly, I see us being able to provide unemployment insurance, maybe a retention credit to keep people from being displaced or brought back into the workplace, helping with our schools — if we can do that along with liability protections, perhaps we put that forward, get that passed, as we negotiate on the rest of the bill in the weeks to come,” Meadows said on ABC’s “This Week.”

Mnuchin made similar comments on “Fox News Sunday.” He said the package Senate Republicans will unveil will include aid for schools, another round of stimulus checks to individuals, and tax credits to encourage companies to rehire workers.

“Within the $1 trillion package, there are certain things that have time frames that are a bigger priority. So we could look at doing an entire deal; we could also look at doing parts,” Mnuchin said, highlighting fixing unemployment insurance and a liability shield. “We can move very quickly with the Democrats on these issues. We’ve moved quickly before. … If there are issues that take longer, we’ll deal with those as well.”

BENEFIT BATTLE

The $600 federal unemployment benefit was created by the CARES Act, which was approved by Congress in March. The extra benefit is paid on top of whatever unemployment insurance states offer, which vary but typically replace about 45 percent of a worker’s salary.

Republicans do not want to extend the full $600-perweek benefit, which they insist provides a disincentive for people to go back to work. Many Democrats contend that many people don’t feel safe going back to work when the coronavirus is surging again around the country.

Republicans have discussed a formula that would amount to 70% wage replacement of the salary a worker was getting paid before getting laid off. Mnuchin suggested Sunday that the federal payment would vary for each beneficiary based on what their earnings were before they lost their job.

Some economists say the new formula would effectively take the $600 payment to about $200 a week, though Mnuchin stressed that it would vary from person to person.

Pelosi on Sunday declined to say whether Democrats would accept an amount lower than $600 per week.

“You don’t go into a negotiation with a red line,” she said. “But you do go in with your values.”

State unemployment offices have been overwhelmed processing the benefit applications of the 20 million to 30 million unemployed Americans. Some experts have suggested switching to a new system would be time-consuming and difficult, but Meadows said they had been discussing it and believed it could be done if the federal government steps in to help state unemployment offices.

“It’s our goal to make sure that it’s not antiquated computers that keep people from getting their benefits,” Meadows said.

“The reason we had $600 was its simplicity,” Pelosi said. “Why don’t we just keep it simple?”

Kudlow said on CNN that the 70% unemployment formula should be considered “quite generous by any standard.”

Pelosi also said the liability protections the GOP wants to put in the legislation would put workers at risk, removing the onus from companies to ensure that workers don’t contract the coronavirus on the job.

“What they’re saying to essential workers [is], ‘You have to go to work because you’re essential. We place no responsibility on your employer to make that workplace safe, and if you get sick you have no recourse,’” she said.

NARROW IS THE WAY

The path to another agreement could be narrow. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said Sunday on Fox News that “half the Republicans are going to vote ‘no’ to any” stimulus package. “That’s just a fact,” he said. “And a lot of Democrats are going to insist on $3 trillion, which would be way too much. It would be wasted money.”

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said he doesn’t support the GOP legislation as proposed. He argued for lifting taxes and regulations that he says are “hammering” small businesses.

Cruz also argued for a payroll tax cut, which will not be in the bill. President Donald Trump had insisted on a temporary trim of payroll taxes, but both parties resisted the idea.

Cruz said Pelosi isn’t working to solve either the virus crisis or the economic one.

“Her objectives are shoveling cash at the problem and shutting America down,” he said. “It’s just shoveling money to her friends and not actually solving the problem.”