NO VIRUS BILL YET
GOP, White House at odds over unemployment aid.
WASHINGTON — Negotiations over a new COVID-19 rescue bill were in flux Friday after the White House floated cutting an unemployment benefits boost to as little as $100 and President Donald Trump turned to a new priority, adding money to build a new FBI headquarters.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell sent senators home, promising a Republican proposal would be ready Monday. Outraged Democrats warned that time was being wasted on GOP infighting as the virus worsens, jobless aid expires and the death toll rises.
“We call upon Leader McConnell to get serious,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer in a joint statement.
During a head-spinning week of start-and-stop efforts, Mr. McConnell abruptly halted the rollout of the Republicans’ $1 trillion plan, which was supposed to provide a counter-offer to the Democrats’ $3 trillion bill in an opening bid for negotiations. Mr. Trump was forced to abandon his push for a payroll tax break, which his party opposed, and so the White House turned to new priorities.
As Republicans struggled, the nation’s infections topped 4 million, deaths rose to nearly 145,000, and the $600 unemployment benefit boost for millions of out-of-work Americans
was on track to expire.
As Mr. McConnell shut down the Senate, he promised to return with “a strong, targeted piece of legislation aimed directly at the challenges we face right now.”
The GOP leader is up for reelection in November alongside Mr. Trump.
“This has been one heck of a challenge for everybody in the country,” Mr. McConnell said in Ashland, Ky. “Hopefully, we can come together behind some package we can agree on in the next few weeks.”