GOP split over next virus aid package
WASHINGTON – The price tag for the next COVID-19 aid package could quickly swell above $1 trillion as White House officials negotiate with Congress over money to reopen schools, prop up small businesses, boost virus testing and keep cash flowing to Americans while the virus crisis deepens in the U.S.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell on Tuesday promised a new round of direct payments to earners below a certain income level, similar to the $1,200 checks sent in the spring. President Donald Trump insists on a payroll tax holiday for workers. And Democrats want billions to outfit schools and shore up local governments.
Treasury Secretary Mnuchin and acting chief of staff Mark Meadows spent the day on Capitol Hill, meeting separately with Mcconnell, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and others trying to broker a compromise between the GOP’S $1 trillion proposal with the House’s more sweeping $3 trillion bill.
The lunch session grew heated as key Republican senators complained about big spending, vowing to stall the relief bill’s passage.
The Republicans are poised to roll out a $1 trillion package, what Mcconnell called a “starting point” in talks. It’s a counteroffer to Pelosi’s $3 trillion
House-passed plan as they race to strike a deal by the end of the month. That’s when a $600 weekly unemployment benefits boost and other aid, including a federal rental moratorium on millions of apartment units, expires.
Mcconnell’s package would send a fresh round of direct cash payments to Americans below a certain income level, extend small business loans under the Paycheck Protection Program and create a five-year liability shield against what he warns is a potential “epidemic” of coronavirus lawsuits.
It’s also expected to include at least $105 billion for education, with $70 billion to help K-12 schools reopen, $30 billion for colleges and $5 billion for governors to allocate. The Trump administration wanted school money linked to reopenings, but in Mcconnell’s package the money for K-12 would be split 50-50 between those that have in-person learning and those that do not.
Republicans want to replace the $600 weekly federal jobless benefit with a lower amount.
Trump wants a full repeal of the 15.3% payroll tax, which is split among employers and employees, and funds Social Security and Medicare.
At a White House meeting on Monday, GOP leaders told Trump they preferred to include only a partial payroll tax cut.
House Democrats have approved $100 billion as an education stabilization fund and Senate Democrats are seeking even more, $430 billion for schools and universities to reopen – with money for spacing students apart, buying masks for daily use and alternating bus schedules.
Mnuchin vowed to stay on Capitol Hill for the next two weeks, determined to reach a deal by month’s end.
The proposed virus aid package would be the fifth, following the $2.2 trillion bill passed in March, the largest U.S. intervention of its kind.