SALT LAKE CITY — A month ahead of the general election and nearly nine months into the coronavirus pandemic, Congress and the White House appear to be at another impasse on a pandemic economic relief bill.
Negotiations have stalled as the White House and the Senate look toward the November election and the upcoming confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin have kept the line of communication open and were expected to talk more on Thursday, according to The Wall Street Journal.
What Republicans are saying
On Thursday, President Donald Trump said on Fox Business’ “Mornings With Maria,” that talks between the White House and Congress had resumed.
“We’re talking about airlines and we’re talking about a bigger deal than airlines,” Trump said. “We’re talking about a deal with $1,200 per person, we’re talking about other things.”
The president, who shut down negotiations via a tweet on Tuesday, said that pause would last until after election. But a few hours he later tweeted that he would a sign bill for airline payroll support and for more money for the Payroll Protection Program.
Trump said on Fox that the stall wasn’t anyone’s fault. “They were trying to get things and we were trying to get things, and it wasn’t going anywhere.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., also said negotiations should resume, The Wall Street Journal reported.
“We do agree another rescue package is needed. We had vast differences about how much we should spend,” McConnell said Thursday. The senator is up for reelection this fall.
“I do believe we should continue to talk and try to get an outcome,” he said.
And the Democrats
Pelosi spoke to reporters Thursday morning to address the future of coronavirus aid packages.
“The simple fact is, and has always been, that unless we crush the virus, we’re not going to be able to open our economy, or our schools or our society safely.”
“We’ve all been working very hard to find our common ground, to agree on language so that we have an understanding of what the legislation will do,” Pelpsi said, speaking of the bipartisan negotiations that had been happening before the president tweeted Tuesday that negotiations would stop.
“We still haven’t heard back on the score — the language — for testing, tracing, treating,” Pelosi said.
Pelosi stressed that a stand-alone stimulus bill, like an airline relief package, was out of the question.
“If there is one thing that has to be in the bill, that he has never made as a priority, it’s crushing the virus,” she said.
What about the airlines?
Starting on Oct. 1, after a coronavirus payroll support program expired, the airline industry began to furlough more than 33,000 employees, The Washington Post reported. Executives said that job losses could be saved if another aid bill is passed.
“They’ve lost their jobs, they’ve lost their health care, some of them are going to lose their homes. They don’t know how they’re going to make ends meet, feed their kids or do anything else,” said Oregon Democratic Rep. Peter DeFazio, chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
DeFazio had sponsored a stand-alone airline bill that stalled because of Republican opposition, The Post reported.
“All because the Republicans in the House of Representatives would not agree and the Republicans in the Senate will not agree to a larger package which contains these provisions,” he said.