Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell tapped the brakes Tuesday on growing momentum for another coronavirus relief package, claiming he'll only drop his most unpopular policy proposal if Democrats agree to give up their demand for budgetary bailouts for states.
McConnell, the top Republican on Capitol Hill, added the latest tit-for-tat to the harried stimulus talks after lunching with fellow GOP senators, some of whom have come out in support of a bipartisan $908 billion relief package that includes bailouts for cash-strapped states, including New York.
But in McConnell's view, the budgetary aid should be cut because he claims the states' leaders, not the pandemic, are to blame for the financial woes.
If Democrats agree to scrap state budget aid, McConnell told reporters he would scratch his demand for a liability provision to shield corporations and businesses from coronavirus-related lawsuits.
"Why don't we set aside the two obviously most contentious issues," McConnell said, adding that Congress should rally behind a slimmer stimulus measure and push negotiations over the liability and state aid issues into next year. "We know we're going to be confronted with another request after the first of the year. We'll live to fight those another day."
Democrats were not convinced.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who are leading stimulus talks for the Democrats, made a major concession last week in getting onboard with the $908 billion proposal, thereby cutting their proposed stimulus price-tag in half.
Passing a stimulus without any aid for states is completely out of the question, Schumer said.
"Sen. McConnell has put the jobs of firefighters, ambulance workers, sanitation officers and police officers in jeopardy," the New York Democrat said, listing off some categories of workers whose salaries are paid by state and local governments. "Every governor and mayor across the country has been fighting to keep these people working, and McConnell is pulling the rug out from under them."
Pelosi piled on. "What does Leader McConnell have against our heroes?" she said.
Despite McConnell's bickering, a growing list of rank-and-file lawmakers from both sides of the aisle are getting behind the $908 billion stimulus measure, which would renew soon-to-expire federal unemployment benefits; provide some state bailouts; bankroll distribution of COVID-19 vaccines; fill up a popular small business loan program; and provide limited business liability protections, among other provisions.
But Congress is facing a tight deadline to get the stimulus done and McConnell's consent is ultimately mandatory — not to mention the fact that lawmakers also have to avert a looming government shutdown.
The federal government runs out of funding Friday at midnight, meaning the House, the Senate and President Donald Trump need to all agree on annual spending legislation by then to avoid a shutdown.
Meantime, any stimulus bill would likely have to be signed, sealed and delivered by Dec. 18, when Congress is supposed to recess for the rest of the year.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo has long said New York needs upward of $70 billion in aid for state and local governments in order to cover enormous budgetary holes caused by the pandemic.
If aid doesn't come soon, Cuomo says, mass layoffs will likely ensue.
Similar situations are unfolding in other states, especially as the pandemic is resurging, with infection rates spiking countrywide and the death toll approaching 280,000.
But McConnell claims budgetary relief would amount to "blue state bailouts" because some of the most hard-hit states are governed by Democrats.
Schumer noted that plenty of Republican states are also in the red financially at this stage.
"Many Republicans support state and local funding," he said. "State and local funding is bipartisan, unlike the extreme corporate liability proposal Leader McConnell made, which has no Democratic support."
McConnell initially wanted a five-year liability shield, retroactive from December 2019, to protect businesses from any legal action seeking damages for coronavirus-related negligence, claiming a wave of lawsuits would otherwise ensue.
Democrats deemed that provision a nonstarter for months, saying it would amount to giving corporations a blank check to put workers at risk of getting infected.
But Pelosi and Schumer offered a compromise last week in supporting the parsed-down compromise bill, which includes a shorter liability shield even though a flurry of lawsuits have not been filed.
Stimulus talks are expected to continue through the week, as lawmakers race to keep the government open and potentially provide relief for struggling Americans.
Another twist in the relief talks is the bipartisan package's lack of another round of $1,200 stimulus checks.
Progressive Democrats, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., are finding unusual common ground with some Republicans who also want the bill to include direct payments to U.S. taxpayers.
"To my mind, it will be an outrage for Congress to go home for the holidays when tens of millions of working families are living in desperation, so I'm working 24/7 right now with anybody and everybody to make sure we get those checks out the door," said Sanders, who's been in touch with Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., about teaming up to push for another stimulus check allocation.
Pelosi suggested the checks may have to wait until President-elect Joe Biden takes office, at which point she said Congress will get to work on a "bigger" stimulus package.
"Make no mistake: This is an emergency supplemental," she said of the $908 billion proposal. "It is not a stimulus. It's too small to be a stimulus."
