Congressional leaders have resolved the final major issue delaying passage of a nearly $1-trillion economic aid package to extend federal unemployment payments and forgivable loans for small businesses, and to give direct cash payments to many Americans.
The leaders — under increasing pressure from constituents and rank-and-file lawmakers, and confronted with both a slowing economy and surging coronavirus infections and related deaths — are racing to hash out the remaining details before millions of Americans lose their financial lifeline. The final text of the aid package, the second largest in U.S. history, is not yet complete, and members of Congress will have little time to review it before voting.
The bipartisan deal crafted by the top four congressional leaders must be passed by the House and Senate and signed by President Trump to become law. The additional federal unemployment aid created by Congress in March in the so-called CARES Act expires Saturday, and most other benefits lapse before the end of the year. Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer predicted the House and Senate could vote as soon as Sunday.
“It appears that barring a major mishap the Senate and House will be able to vote on a bill as early as tonight,” Schumer said Sunday.
Congressional leaders want to attach the aid to a must-pass $1.4-trillion package to fund the operations of federal agencies through this fiscal year ending Sept. 30. Congress has passed several short-term resolutions to extend the funding and keep the government open while the aid package was being negotiated. Lawmakers have until the end of the day Sunday to pass the bill and avoid a government shutdown.
By early afternoon, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said leaders are “hours” away from completing the deal and “at this point we’re down to the last few differences.”
While Trump has not been involved in the talks, Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin has, and the president is expected to support a deal that has Republican leaders’ backing.
The package would not only allow additional weeks of compensation for jobless Americans, but also add $300 a week to what they receive through their state unemployment program. That is half of the $600 a week they received from March through April under the CARES Act. It would provide a one-time direct payment of up to $600 for most Americans, half the maximum $1,200 distributed in the spring, and another round of Paycheck Protection Program loans for small businesses. The deal also contains money for vaccine distribution, food assistance, rent payments, child care and schools.
For eight months, members of Congress have talked about the need for another economic aid package to help struggling Americans. They have pointed fingers at the opposing party as the reason it wasn’t possible but failed to move legislation as unemployment rates rose and millions of Americans got sick and hundreds of thousands have died. The acrimony led some lawmakers to declare in mid-November that there was little chance Congress could pass another package.
Negotiations on the aid package resumed in earnest earlier in the week at the prompting of a bipartisan group of senators and representatives. The talks gained speed after Republican and Democratic leaders agreed to drop the two main sticking points — aid for state and local governments, which House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) and other Democrats wanted, and a provision shielding businesses from liability in lawsuits related to COVID-19, a priority of Republicans and in particular McConnell.
Most issues had been resolved by Friday, but negotiations dragged into the weekend as senators argued over whether Congress should rein in the Federal Reserve’s emergency lending powers.
Sen. Patrick J. Toomey (R-Pa.) pushed for a provision that would have shut down a Fed lending program that helped prop up state budgets and corporations during the pandemic, and it would have prevented the Fed from restarting such an effort without congressional approval. Democrats pushed back, saying Toomey’s proposal would have tied the hands of future administrations, including the incoming Biden administration, in moments of crisis. The Federal Reserve has had the authority to take such actions since the Great Depression, though it is rarely used.
Toomey and Schumer ultimately reached a tentative solution late Saturday, dropping language saying the Fed chair couldn’t create similar programs in the future. The existing programs would still end.
