Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Relief funds said to get White House backing
Round of $600 stimulus checks floated
WASHINGTON — White House officials are asking the Senate Republican leadership to include stimulus checks worth $ 600 in the emergency economic relief package currently being debated in Congress, according to two people granted anonymity to share details of private deliberations.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., did not include a second round of stimulus payments in the relief proposal he released last week. Senior Republican leaders in Congress are listening to White House officials push for the inclusion of the stimulus checks, the two people said, a provision also broadly supported by congressional Democrats.
President Donald Trump has privately indicated a willingness to send another round of stimulus checks of as much as $2,000, according to one person in direct communication with the president. Congress in March approved a round of $1,200 checks that the Treasury Department disbursed to more than 100 million American families in a matter of weeks.
A second round of stimulus checks was left out of
the $908 billion bipartisan framework unveiled last week by a group of moderate senators hoping to break the monthslong impasse over stimulus negotiations. Sens. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., have been pushing for the checks to be included in the final package, with Sanders going as far as saying he will vote against relief legislation unless they are included.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin issued a statement Tuesday evening saying the White House has made a $916 billion proposal to Congress on what it would seek in a deal. The short statement did not specifically mention stimulus checks, though White House officials had made their interest in the payments clear to congressional offices.
Lawmakers are working this week to reach agreement on a variety of policy questions, including how to apportion aid to state and local governments and a liability shield to grant legal immunity to firms over coronavirus-related lawsuits. A number of critical emergency aid programs are set to expire if Congress fails to act, including unemployment benefits for more than 12 million people and a federal eviction moratorium. Congress is expected to approve a one-week “continuing resolution” this week to avert a shutdown of the federal government after Friday.
The urgency of negotiations has led to a flurry of activity on Capitol Hill. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, one of the leaders of the $ 908 billion bipartisan framework, acknowledged support for a second round of stimulus payments but said the group’s effort was more narrowly aimed at those in need.
“I know there’s considerable public support for it, but right now we’re targeting struggling families, failing businesses, health care workers, and we don’t have a stimulus check to every single person, regardless of need,” Collins told reporters.
Hawley expressed frustration Tuesday about negotiators being “pretty dug in on the idea of not including checks.” He added: “I see them saying things like ‘this is an emergency relief bill.’ I don’t know what’s more of an emergency than working people and families who are having to get into food lines. … I don’t understand that logic at all.”
The stimulus checks have divided economists as well as lawmakers. Some economists point out that millions of stimulus checks were received by families who are prospering economically and have not lost their jobs or suffered pay cuts, arguing they were poorly targeted for the current crisis. Other economists have said the stimulus checks helped stabilize a turbulent economy and reached many people who were struggling economically and were denied unemployment benefits or other forms of social insurance. An August analysis by the Urban Institute, a centrist think tank, found the stimulus checks would keep 6.3 million people out of poverty.
SEEKING COMPROMISE
Another issue facing the bipartisan stimulus negotiations is the insistence by Senate Republicans that businesses and other entities have sweeping immunity from coronavirus-related lawsuits.
Many Democrats have refused to agree to such language, saying it could imperil workers.
A half-dozen senators met Monday night in the Mansfield Room in the Capitol, and multiple lawmakers expressed renewed optimism about the possibility of a deal being in reach.
Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, one of the architects of the stimulus plan, on Monday proposed that immunity from federal lawsuits should only last through 2020, according to a draft of his plan circulating among members of the bipartisan group. The measure would provide an exemption, allowing suits over gross negligence or willful misconduct. Other senior Republican lawmakers have proposed that the liability shield cover five years.
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, the lead author of the GOP’s liability shield plan, left the bipartisan discussions early Monday night. But he and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., have been involved in crafting a liability compromise, and they are expected to work on a proposal with opposing senators, including Dick Durbin, D- Ill., and Angus King, I-Maine.
At issue is how much liability companies should face if workers or customers seek redress for personal harm caused by infections. Aides cautioned that how to apportion state and local funding has also proved a difficult sticking point in economic relief negotiations and also threatens to derail talks.
With just weeks remaining for lawmakers to reach an agreement before federal emergency relief programs expire, the impasse could sink much wider efforts to provide hundreds of billions of dollars in aid to jobless Americans, struggling municipalities and hard-hit small businesses.
McConnell, meanwhile, suggested setting aside the issue of business liability protections in exchange for Democrats dropping their demands for state government aid.
McConnell on Tuesday said both should be set aside and the focus be put on three areas where both parties agree help is needed: small- business assistance, expanded unemployment insurance and funding for vaccine distribution and other anti-coronavirus efforts.
“It’s my view, and I think it’s the view shared by literally everybody on both sides of the aisle, that we can’t leave without doing a covid bill,” McConnell said at a news conference. “The country needs it.”
But Senate Democratic leader Charles Schumer of New York said leaving out state and local aid would hurt essential workers across the nation, including police officers and firefighters who face job losses. He accused McConnell of “pulling the rug out” from under the bipartisan group of lawmakers working on a compromise relief plan.
“Leader McConnell has refused to be part of the bipartisan negotiations,” Schumer said at a news conference. “And now he’s sabotaging good-faith, bipartisan negotiations because his partisan ideological effort is not getting a good reception.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said earlier Tuesday that she remains optimistic about getting a deal but emphasized she considers it a bridge to another, larger package next year once President-elect Joe Biden takes office.
“Make no mistake, this is an emergency supplemental,” she said. “It is not a stimulus. It’s too small.”
McConnell said he expects “the new administration is going to be asking for another package. What I recommend is we set aside liability, we set aside state and local and pass those things that we can agree on knowing full well we’ll be back at this after the first of the year.”
McConnell on Tuesday said he and other Republicans continue to question whether states and local governments need additional aid.