Bipartisan talks on a nearly trillion-dollar pandemic relief bill in Congress are hung up on differences between Republicans and Democrats on shielding companies from virus-related lawsuits, raising doubts about a deal and risking dragging negotiations past next week.
While Republicans and Democrats are closer than ever to agreeing on a price tag for a stimulus measure — coalescing around a $900 billion figure — there’s no sign they can get a deal anytime soon.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is urging lawmakers to drop aid for state and local governments and liability protections, and to proceed with a smaller bill without either. That pitch continues to be rejected by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other top Democrats who are open to a pause in liability lawsuits in exchange for the $160 billion in state aid floated by a bipartisan group of negotiators.
A group of Republican and Democratic senators trying to forge a compromise was able to agree to a formula for distributing state and local aid on Thursday, but talks have bogged down on liability.
“It’s pretty difficult,” Senator Mitt Romney, a Utah Republican and member of the group, said Thursday evening. “We’ve got a week left to be able to resolve all the issues,” and it’s a “very broad area,” he said.
The continued struggles spurred renewed calls by Senate Republican leaders to move on from the group’s efforts and pass a small bill without either state aid or lawsuit protections.
Senator John Thune of South Dakota, the chamber’s No. 2 Republican, said the group of Republican and Democratic senators likely cannot produce a solution to limiting liability of employers in connection with Covid-19 infections that would satisfy Republicans. Democrats probably won’t like it, either, he added.
“My sense is that they’re not going to get there on the liability language,” he said at the Capitol. “They’re just not going to be able to thread the needle.”
At the same time, the Senate has yet to pass a one-week stopgap spending bill needed to keep the federal government running beyond Friday night, when current funding runs out. Lawmakers plan to attach any Covid-19 relief deal to a comprehensive spending bill they’re working on separately to provide appropriations from Dec. 18 into 2021.
One reason for the holdup on the stopgap bill is an attempt by progressive Senator Bernie Sander of Vermont and conservative Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri to attach provisions granting most Americans $1,200 stimulus checks.
The bipartisan plan doesn’t have stimulus checks, while a $916 billion relief proposal by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin provides $600 to individuals and children and leaves out $300 a week in supplemental jobless benefits.
Sanders and Hawley told reporters Thursday even if they allow the stopgap to clear the Senate Friday, they would make other attempts at brinkmanship to get the direct payments in the bill next week.
The bipartisan group is discussing an enhanced pause in Covid-19 lawsuits, combined with a process for developing a liability standard in the future along with a standard that would apply now, according to a person familiar with the talks. A pause would give states some time to write liability laws in 2021.
A bipartisan meeting of senators engaged on the liability language met late Thursday and Republicans rejected the latest offer by Democrats, according to a Senate aide familiar with the discussions. The plan includes a temporary freeze on lawsuits, an enhanced ability for companies to defend themselves if their actions are found to have caused harm, and a fund to reimburse employers for judgments against them if they are determined to have acted under the best available Covid safety guidance.
A key goal of Democrats was to keep actions under state law while and allowing state legislatures time to further craft their own liability shields. Republicans rejected that, the aide said, adding the more discussions are planned for Friday.
Senator John Cornyn of Texas, another member of McConnell’s team, said the bipartisan group’s approach on liability falls far short of what Republican leaders want — which is to ensure that lawsuits against employers are tried in federal and not state courts.
“The reason why we need a federal standard is because there will be inevitable cherry-picking and venue-shopping — and then you start certifying class actions in those states that don’t have liability protection,” Cornyn said, adding that the gang’s ideas are too tilted toward plaintiff lawyers. “Basically, that will be the standard in the country.”
Amid all the disagreements, lawmakers are starting to talk about missing the Dec. 18 deadline and negotiating after Christmas. It’s the latest delay in talks that have gone on since July.
While Mnuchin has been on calls with lawmakers, one player who hasn’t stepped up is President Donald Trump — leaving the possibility he could use his influence over Senate Republicans to seal a deal.
With the clock ticking down, the drama could yet increase. Should closed-door talks fail to produce a package, each chamber of Congress could attempt to resolve the differences on the floor, attaching competing stimulus proposals to the Dec. 18 funding bill and daring the other body to vote it down.
