Momentum for COVID-19 relief growing, Pelosi says
Calls $908 billion bipartisan plan a ‘good product’
WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi gave an optimistic assessment of the prospects for a midsize COVID-19 relief bill and a separate $1.4 trillion governmentwide spending bill Friday, teeing up expectations for a successful burst of legislative action to reverse months of frustration on pandemic relief
Pelosi told reporters that she and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell are in sync on a plan to reach agreement on the massive omnibus spending bill and to add COVID-19 relief to it.
Pelosi said a bipartisan, middle- of-the-road plan being finalized by a diverse gaggle of senators that she has endorsed as a foundation for the relief bill is a good effort, even though it’s a significant retreat from where Democrats stood before the election.
“It’s a good product,” Pelosi said. “It’s not everything we want.”
Pelosi had dismissed a larger package floated by moderates in September as inadequate, but said that the looming arrival of vaccines and President-elect Joe Biden’s victory are a “game changer” that should guarantee more aid next year and the elimination of the pandemic. She called the bill a bridge “until the inauguration and the emergence of the vaccine.”
Pelosi, D-Calif., and McConnell, R-Ky., often fight and snipe at each other, but they are an unstoppable force when their interests align. They spoke on the phone Thursday, a conversation that came the day after Pelosi signaled a willingness to make major concessions in search of a COVID-19 rescue package in the $1 trillion range.
The pace of the economic recovery has slowed, COVID-19 caseloads are spiraling and the daily death toll is equaling records, a toxic statistical stew that shows the mandate for a second major relief package after months of failed promises. It’s also a promising moment after Biden rallied behind the bipartisan measure and top congressional Democrats began beating a retreat to endorse the $908 billion bipartisan framework as a way to build an agreement.
“The sooner we pass the funding, the sooner we can turn the corner on COVID-19,” Biden said Friday. “Congress and President Trump have to get this deal done for the American people.”
Some conservatives, including Republicans from COVID-19 hot spots like North Dakota and Iowa, said they were comfortable with an aid package carrying the almost $1 trillion price tag. The $908 billion cost is what many Republicans, McConnell included, signaled they were willing to accept this summer before scaling back their ambitions to maintain GOP unity.
The scaled-back, bipartisan measure is the product of talks involving Republicans Susan Collins, RMaine, Lisa Murkowski, RAlaska, and Mitt Romney, R-Utah, along with Democrats Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Dick Durbin of Illinois. Also lending credibility to the middle-of-theroad package is a wellintentioned “problem solvers” group that promises to deliver a bipartisan vote.
McConnell himself said a
huge drop in Democratic. demands— from more than $2 trillion to less than $1 trillion — was “at least movement in the right direction.”
At stake is whether to provide at least some COVID-19 aid now rather than wait until Biden takes office. Businesses, especially airlines, restaurants and health providers, are desperate for help as caseloads spiral and deaths spike. Money to help states distribute vaccines is needed, and supplemental pandemic unemployment aid that provides additional weeks of jobless benefits expires at the end of the
month.
The $908 billion measure would establish a $300-perweek jobless benefit, send $160 billion to help state and local governments, boost schools and universities, revive popular “paycheck protection” subsidies for businesses and bail out transit systems and airlines.
The statement was a significant concession by Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, who played hardball this fall during failed preelection discussions with the administration on a costlier bill. They wanted amore generous unemployment benefit
and far more for state and local governments. Their embrace of the $908 billion measure was a retreat from a secret$1.3 trillion offer the two Democrats gave McConnell on Monday.
The new plan includes a liability shield for businesses and other organizations that have reopened their doors during the pandemic. It’s the first time Pelosi and Schumer have shown a willingness to consider the idea, a top priority of McConnell, and Durbin’s involvement suggests a level of seriousness that had not been previously seen.
“There is momentum,” Pelosi said.