Talks escalate on new COVID-19 relief, top lawmakers to meet
WASHINGTON » Talks on a long- delayed COVID-19 aid package intensified Tuesday as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi summoned other top congressional leaders for a potentially critical meeting.
Pelosi, D- Calif., spoke with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin for more than an hour, her office tweeted, and Mnuchin will join the make-or-break meeting of Capitol Hill’s “big four” leaders by phone.
The uptick in activity could be a sign that an agreement is near, though COVID-19 relief talks have been notoriously difficult.
Pelosi hasn’t met with Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell in months. The Kentucky Republican is playing a strong hand in the lameduck session and is pressuring Democrats to drop a much-sought $160 billion aid package for states and local governments struggling to balance their budgets because of the pandemic.
Rank- and- file Democrats appear increasingly resigned to having to drop, for now, the par
ty’s demand for fiscal relief for states and local governments whose budgets have been thrown out of balance by the pandemic.
Pelosi, D- Calif., pressed in talks with Mnuchin on Monday for help for struggling states and localities. But top Democratic allies of President-elect Joe Biden came out in support of a $748 billion plan offered by a bipartisan group of lawmakers and hinted they won’t insist on a pitched battle for state and local aid now.
“We cannot afford to wait any longer to act. This should not be Congress’ last COVID relief bill, but it is
a strong compromise that deserves support from both Republicans and Democrats in the Senate,” said Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del. “We cannot leave for the holidays without getting relief to those Americans who need it.”
The message from Coons, a confidant of Biden, and a similar message from Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., came as a bipartisan group of lawmakers unveiled a detailed COVID-19 aid proposal in hopes it would serve as a model for their battling leaders to follow as they try to negotiate a final agreement.