The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Congress might need to rush relief bill to avoid unemployment aid lapse,
White House will also push for evictions ban through end of 2020.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said Sunday that Congress might have to pass a narrow piece of legislation this week to ensure enhanced unemployment benefits don’t expire for millions of Americans.
But they both also said the slimmed down legislation should include sweeping lawsuit protections demanded by businesses, a provision that Democrats have opposed for weeks. Democrats also oppose the White House push to extend the unemployment benefits at a dramatically reduced amount.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has rejected the piecemeal approach, but time is running short because the temporary unemployment benefits are set to expire at the end of this week. These $600 weekly payments were approved by Congress in March.
The administration’s chief negotiators — Meadows and Mnuchin — spent a few hours at the Capitol later Sunday to put what Meadows described as “final touches” on the $1 trillion relief bill Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is expected to bring forward this afternoon.
“We’re done,” Mnuchin said as he and Meadows left Capitol Hill after meeting with GOP staff.
Meadows said the White House was “looking for clarity” on a “handful” of remaining issues before today. “We have an agreement in principle,” he said.
After weeks of inaction, White House officials have displayed a new sense of urgency about the economy in the past week amid signs that the recovery is slowing markedly.
In addition to new calls for a pared down stimulus bill, White House officials are also planning to push for an eviction moratorium through the end of the year, according to a senior administration official. The Department of Housing and Urban Development is expected to be involved in this effort. A previous four-month eviction moratorium expires at the end of this month.
Bipartisan talks on the next coronavirus package have barely begun, and the White House and Senate Republicans haven’t even formally offered a GOP plan yet. House Democrats passed a bill in May that would extend the $600 weekly payments through January, as the unemployment rate remains above 11 percent.
Pelosi said Democrats have been waiting to negotiate. ”We’ve been anxious to negotiate for two months and 10 days when we put forward our proposal,” Pelosi said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “They’re in disarray and that delay is causing suffering for America’s families.”
McConnell, R-Ky., intends to roll out a $1 trillion package today covering a range of issues, including a new round of checks to individual Americans. But Democrats are demanding a bill three times that size, and McConnell has said it could take “a few weeks” to reach a deal.
“Honestly I see us being able to provide unemployment insurance, maybe a retention credit to keep people from being displaced or brought back into the workplace, helping with our schools — if we can do that along with liability protections perhaps we put that forward, get that passed as we negotiate on the rest of the bill in the weeks to come,” Meadows said on ABC’s “This Week.”
Mnuchin made similar comments on “Fox News Sunday.”
“Within the $1 trillion package, there are certain things that have time-frames that are a bigger priority. So we could look at doing an entire deal; we could also look at doing parts,” Mnuchin said, highlighting fixing unemployment insurance and a liability shield. “We can move very quickly with the Democrats on these issues.