MNUCHIN OFFERS $1.8T FOR COVID AID
Figure is less than Democrats seek for relief bill funding
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin made a more than $1.8 trillion offer to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Friday in a renewed search for an economic relief deal, but agreement remained elusive as Pelosi said her terms still weren’t met.
“Of special concern, is the absence of an agreement on a strategic plan to crush the virus,” Pelosi’s spokesman, Drew Hammill, said on Twitter after Pelosi and Mnuchin spoke for 30 minutes Friday afternoon. “For this and other provisions, we are still awaiting language from the administration as negotiations on the overall funding amount continue.”
The negotiations took place just three days after President Donald Trump declared talks over. He’s now reversed himself and is seeking a deal with weeks to go before the election — even though some congressional Republicans appear far less enthused over the prospect of a massive new spending bill.
“Covid Relief Negotiations are moving along. Go Big!” Trump wrote on Twitter Friday. Later in the day, speaking on Rush Limbaugh’s radio program, Trump said, “I would like to see a bigger stimulus package, frankly, than either the Democrats or the Republicans are offering.”
White House communications director Alyssa Farah contradicted that assertion, however, saying that the
White House wanted to keep the final tally “below $2 trillion.” Democrats have been seeking a $2.2 trillion bill.
The new $1.8 trillion offer is an increase from the White House’s most recent proposal of around $1.6 trillion, which Pelosi had dismissed as too meager. Among the changes: The new offer proposes $300 billion for cities and states, up from $250 billion in the earlier proposal; it maintains a $400 weekly enhanced unemployment insurance benefit from the previous version, but for a somewhat longer duration, according to a person familiar
with the contents who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss them.
The White House’s offer on stimulus checks includes $1,000 per child, instead of the $500 per child provided in the original stimulus bill approved in March, according to two people with knowledge of the plan. The increase in the payment for children appears to be intended as a compromise measure for rejecting tax credits for children pushed by Pelosi in negotiations.
The figure for states and cities, first reported by Politico, is still significantly lower
than Democrats had been seeking. That issue has been a long-running point of contention between the two sides, with Republicans claiming Democrats are trying to “bail out” blue states, a claim that angers Democrats, especially since many Republican governors also are seeking additional federal aid.
Roughly $400 billion of the spending would come from money that had already been approved by Congress and would be repurposed, an administration official said, so that the net cost of the bill would be closer to $1.5 tril
lion.
Trump’s sudden desire for a huge spending bill does not match the mood from many Republicans on Capitol Hill, who have been cooler to the idea of a big package less than four weeks before the November elections. It comes, though, amid signs that the U.S. economy is hitting a rough patch several months into a partial recovery. A number of companies in the past few weeks have begun layoffs and furloughs, particularly in the travel industry. Other sectors are also showing signs of strain. Pelosi had been pushing legislation around $2.2 trillion in the talks with Mnuchin before Trump abruptly pulled the plug on negotiations Tuesday. Trump reversed course several hours later, though, after the stock market sunk and some in his own party objected. Trump has since been convinced by some political allies that a stimulus package would be helpful for his re-election, according to two people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share details of internal conversations.
Senate GOP leaders have said any bill larger than $1 trillion would be difficult for many Senate Republicans to accept, and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., could be reluctant to put legislation on the f loor that would divide his conference — especially as he tries to focus on confirming a new Supreme Court justice ahead of the election. In a provision that could further alienate some conservatives, the White House proposal would allow certain unauthorized immigrants to get stimulus checks.
At an event earlier Friday in Kentucky, McConnell threw cold water on prospects for legislation to pass, saying it was “unlikely in the next three weeks.” A Republican strategist close to McConnell’s office, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal GOP thinking, said there was substantial opposition to the deal both within the administration and among congressional Republicans, predicting that a package of around $2 trillion would receive the support of “maybe 10” Senate Republicans.