Partisan divides grow wider in debate over more aid

WASHINGTON — Reconsideration of jobless aid is fast becoming the focus of congressional debate over the next virus aid package

Republicans are staking out plans to phase out coronavirusrelated unemployment benefits to encourage Americans to go back to work, although it’s not clear when there will be jobs to return to.

“Republicans and the White House are reaching consensus on the need for redesigning the unemployment benefits so they are not a barrier to getting people back to work,” Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas, the top Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee, told reporters on a conference call. President Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell huddled at the White House to discuss the issues.

The flurry of activity comes after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi pushed a new $3 trillion aid package through the House last week. The Senate, under McConnell, says there is no urgency to act, and senators are expected to reconsider more aid only in June.

With layoffs surpassing 38 million, some lawmakers see a failure by Washington to act as untenable. Yet Congress has moved beyond the political consensus reached at the outset of the crisis and is now splitting along familiar party lines.

The difference in approach and priorities between Democrats and Republicans reflects the partisan split that is defining both parties before the 2020 election.

At least one Republican, Sen. Cory Gardner of Colorado, urged the Senate not to recess unless it considered more aid. “Now is not the time for the Senate to go home,” tweeted Gardner, who is among the most politically endangered GOP senators running for reelection in the fall.

But senators left town until after Memorial Day.

Gardner wants agreement to extend the small business Paycheck Protection Program and pushed for more funds for state and local governments facing layoffs. He said he had called Trump to express his concerns.

As a result, senators were trying to fasttrack a proposal to extend the Paycheck Protection Program’s expiration. The fix would double from eight to 16 weeks the window for business owners absorbing losses to spend their federally backed loans and still qualify to have them forgiven. The program was established in March under an earlier response bill.

McConnell argues that his side of the Capitol led passage of the earlier $2 trillion package. Better to assess how that money is being spent, he said, before approving more. He rejects the new $3 trillion package approved by the Democraticled House last week as a “liberal wish list.”