Smaller relief bill goes before Senate

McConnell unveils $500 billion package that Pelosi calls ‘pathetic’

Washington — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell unveiled a slimmed-down coronavirus relief bill Tuesday and announced plans to move to a vote later this week, an effort to put Democrats on the defensive after weeks of stalled talks.

The legislation is not expected to advance, since that would require support from Democrats, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., called the measure “pathetic.” McConnell, R-Ky., has struggled to unite Republicans

behind the measure, and is likely to suffer some GOP defections.

A month after bipartisan talks collapsed on Capitol Hill, McConnell is aiming to pressure Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., with a GOP package that would spend about $500 billion on some key priorities, including small businesses, enhanced unemployment insurance, child care, the Postal Service, coronavirus testing and schools. It also would create a type of liability shield for businesses to protect them from some lawsuits related to the coronavirus.

The Senate GOP bill is expected to kick off a frenetic flurry of legislating this month. In addition to the economic-relief talks, lawmakers must agree on a government spending bill in order to avoid a shutdown in October. Relations between Democrats and Republicans have soured markedly since the spring, particularly as the November elections near.

In a statement Tuesday, McConnell said Pelosi had refused to negotiate on a targeted relief bill despite bringing the House back into session last month to pass a bill that would provide $25 billion for the U.S. Postal Service.

“Speaker Pelosi and Leader Schumer said a targeted deal on jobless benefits and the Paycheck Protection Program would be ‘piecemeal,’ but then Speaker Pelosi came rushing back to pass the most piecemeal bill imaginable: Postal Service legislation that completely ignored the health, economic, and education crises facing families,” McConnell said.

“Everything Speaker Pelosi and Leader Schumer have done suggests one simple motivation: They do not want American families to see any more bipartisan aid before the polls close on President Trump’s reelection. They have taken Americans’ health, jobs, and schools hostage for perceived partisan gain,” he said.

In a joint statement, Pelosi and Schumer dismissed McConnell’s bill, saying it “doesn’t come close to addressing the problems and is headed nowhere.”