Senate Republicans are set to release their coronavirus relief proposal Monday afternoon, setting off what could be weeks of political battles with Democrats over unemployment insurance, state and local aid, and liability protection for businesses and schools as the pandemic continues to batter the U.S. economy.
The Senate GOP proposal — backed by the White House — is expected to call for the reduction in boosted unemployment benefits from $600 to $200 per weeks for a 60-day period, or until states are able to provide a 70 percent wage replacement, according to sources on a call with GOP staff. This prospective change had been floated by the White House last week, although there have been concerns whether state unemployment agencies could handle the revisions.
The GOP package is also expected to include liability reform, another round of $1,200 direct payments to middle and lower-income Americans, additional funds for the Paycheck Protection Program, $25 billion to improve state coronavirus testing programs, and more than $100 billion to help reopen schools and colleges.
Negotiations on the next coronavirus relief proposal comes as a federal $600 boost in unemployment benefits from the March CARES package began to expire over the weekend. Democrats are pushing to extend those benefits into next year.
The upcoming release of the Senate GOP plan comes after Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows spent the weekend negotiating with Senate leadership staff to hammer out the final details.
While the first three major coronavirus relief packages passed Congress with large bipartisan majorities — despite some intense partisan wrangling — this round of discussions are going to be much more challenging. Democrats want to spend at least $2 trillion more than Republicans will propose, while GOP hardliners don’t want to do a package at all.
In a sign that negotiations are going to be difficult from the start, Meadows and Mnuchin spent Sunday floating a piecemeal approach to the aid package. But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has vowed that any next coronavirus relief bill will be the Senate’s last. Speaker Nancy Pelosi has also rejected the piece-by-piece idea.
In a statement ahead of the release of the GOP proposal, Pelosi called for an immediate start to talks.
“I call upon the Republican leadership of the House and Senate and representatives of the President to come to the Speaker’s Office and join Leader Schumer and me within a half an hour of releasing their plan today to negotiate and get the job done,” Pelosi said in a statement.
House Democrats were also quick to dismiss the idea of cutting federal unemployment benefits down to $200-per-week.
“It is the ultimate disconnect with what Americans are dealing with if they think an extra $200 is enough for the families,” Rep. Dan Kildee (D-Mich.) said. “They don’t seem to understand that money is actually supporting that economy.”
Democrats say they aren’t entirely ruling out a short-term extension, if it could continue the extra $600-per-week in benefits. But many are skeptical of the GOP’s efforts, citing the weeks of delay leading up to this point.
“My view is, we passed the Heroes Act two and a half months ago. It was a comprehensive and divisive response to a deadly pandemic. The administration and Mitch McConnell have done nothing ever since,” House Democratic Caucus Chairman Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said Monday.
“It’s time to act and act in a transformative way, and not with a short-term Band-aid-like fix.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) meanwhile said Monday morning on MSNBC that Democrats want to negotiate but “you can’t negotiate with a ghost.”
The stakes for Congress to get another major package through before leaving for the August recess are high, as coronavirus cases continue to rise nationwide. Pelosi vowed Sunday that Congress would not leave town without a deal. Democrats are pushing for the $3 trillion Heroes Act which the House passed in May, although McConnell has rejected that approach as far too costly.
