STIMULUS TALKS HIT ROADBLOCK AS RESISTANCE RISES IN SENATE
McConnell’s aides signal opposition to bipartisan proposal
Efforts to reach a yearend agreement on a stimulus package to prop up the shuddering economy faltered on Thursday as aides to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., signaled privately that most Republicans were unlikely to endorse an emerging bipartisan compromise without changes.
In discussions with other congressional leaders, McConnell’s advisers expressed concern that Republicans could not accept liability protections for businesses that they consider too limited or funding for state and local governments that they have long resisted. Both are central elements of a $908 billion outline drafted by moderates in both parties.
The divisions on those two issues have muddied the prospects for an agreement on both a stimulus measure that lawmakers in both parties have agreed is necessary before Congress adjourns and a catchall government funding bill that must pass to avert a shutdown.
Some lawmakers have begun aggressively pushing for legislation that would send $1,200 direct payments to most Americans in any package.
The warning from McConnell’s staff aides ref lected the significant hurdles for the unfinished $908 billion outline, and for the stimulus talks overall.
Republicans have long resisted providing billions of dollars for states, and Democrats have deemed McConnell’s proposal for a sweeping coronavirus liability shield for companies as a nonstarter that would harm workers.
McConnell’s concerns about the moderates’ compromise was earlier reported by Politico, and was relayed on the condition of anonymity by a senior Democrat familiar with the conversation between the senator’s aides and other congressional leaders.
McConnell’s office declined to comment, though he has made it clear that he was cool to the compromise, instead urging his colleagues to drop both the liability shield and the state and local aid in favor of a much narrower package.
But top Democrats have rejected the suggestion from McConnell and other Republicans that Congress put aside those two issues.
They have also panned a $916 billion alternative that the White House presented on Tuesday. That proposal, outlined by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, failed to revive lapsed federal supplemental jobless payments in favor of a round of $600 stimulus checks, half the amount approved this year.
The prospects for a oneweek stopgap government funding bill intended to avert a shutdown today and buy additional time for negotiations were unclear in the Senate on Thursday, as lawmakers struggled to secure consensus on a sweeping military policy bill and the spending measure.