Congress Looks to Pass Covid Relief Package, Spending Bill at Once

Bipartisan negotiators on a $908 billion pandemic relief package are planning to unveil more details of their proposal on Monday, aiming to settle on language that can satisfy enough Republicans and Democrats to secure passage of one final tranche of Covid-19 aid before Congress breaks for the year.

The outline of the plan spurred a flurry of optimism last week when it won the endorsement of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer and a number of Republican senators as a basis for fresh talks after a half-year of stalemate.

Louisiana Republican Senator Bill Cassidy, part of the group behind the proposal, said Sunday he was confident President Donald Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell “will come on board” with the plan, which he emphasized was a short-term boost for a nation still reeling from the pandemic.

“This is not a stimulus bill, it’s a relief bill,” he said on Fox News Sunday. “And it’s something for the next three to four months to help those in greatest need.”

Still, complaints grew as lawmakers expressed disappointment at missing elements and items that they wanted excluded.

Senator Bernie Sanders said he’d oppose the compromise because it lacked $1,200 individual stimulus checks, something that President-elect Joe Biden also wanted included. McConnell and other Republicans are skeptical about the scale of $160 billion in aid assigned to states, which GOP members have criticized as an improper bailout.

“We’re trying to narrow the scope, get the relief out there flowing” to the priority areas both sides can agree on, said Representative Tom Reed, a New York Republican and co-head of the bipartisan Problem Solvers group that is also backing the package. “We were trying to get to that sweet spot, that common ground.”

Payments to individuals would blow out the price tag, Reed said. While House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said the $908 billion figure was the “lowest we should go to,” it’s still well above the roughly $500 billion that Senate Republicans had favored in the fall. Pelosi had previously pushed for a $2.4 trillion package.

“It’s essential we provide immediate relief for working families and businesses now,” Biden said in a Friday news conference. But “any package passed in the lame duck session is not going to be enough overall,” with another package needed in January.

Congressional leaders in both parties say the pandemic relief bill will be attached to an omnibus government-funding bill that covers appropriations into 2021. A stopgap measure that prevents a government shutdown runs out on Dec. 11, and lawmakers are considering another one that would last a week, giving Congress until Dec. 18 to wrap up both appropriations and the coronavirus assistance package.

Trump has largely disengaged from the stimulus talks after his election loss, leaving it up to Congress to take the initiative. Record numbers of deaths of Americans from Covid-19, along with increasing evidence that the economic rebound is faltering, have increased pressure on lawmakers to act.

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