Senate reopens despite virus risks as House preps more aid

WASHINGTON — The Senate reopened Monday in a Capitol largely shuttered by the coronavirus, but prospects for quick action on a new aid package are uncertain with a deepening debate over how best to confront the deadly pandemic and its economic devastation.

The 100 senators are convening for the first time since March, while the House is staying away due to the health risks. The Washington area remains a virus hot spot under stayat-home rules.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., opened the session, defending his decision to focus the agenda on confirming President Donald Trump’s nominees.

“We have important work to do for the nation,” McConnell said. He said the Senate would “show up for work like the essential workers that we are.”

Senate Republicans are trying to set the debate, frustrated that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was able to fill earlier aid bills with Democratic priorities. They’re reluctant to unleash federal funds beyond the nearly $3 trillion Congress already approved in virus relief and hope Trump’s push to kick-start the economy will reduce the need for more aid. But Pelosi, D-Calif., is working to assemble a new aid package that Democrats expect to unveil soon.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York called Monday “one of the strangest sessions of the United States Senate in history.”

For the past five-plus weeks, the COVID-19 crisis has all but closed Congress, marking a longer absence than during the 1918 Spanish Flu or the Sept. 11 attacks.