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Grasping for a Deal With Trump, House Will Vote on Coronavirus Relief Bill Senate Cancels Recess as Democrats and White House Seek Virus Relief Deal
(about 3 hours later)
WASHINGTON — The House prepared on Thursday to vote on a sweeping coronavirus relief package, pushing ahead with a measure to provide food security assistance, a substantial national paid sick leave program, free coronavirus testing and strengthened unemployment benefits for people affected by the spread of the pandemic and the resulting economic disruption. WASHINGTON — Under mounting pressure to remain in Washington as Democrats and the White House hammer out a relief package to address a fast-moving pandemic, Senator Mitch McConnell reversed course on Thursday and canceled a planned one-week recess, saying the Senate would meet next week and be ready to consider a compromise coronavirus relief bill.
But even as Democrats laid the groundwork for a vote on the Families First Coronavirus Response Act — which was hastily cobbled together and unveiled after 10 p.m. on Wednesday as the sense of urgency in the Capitol mounted — talks were still underway to try to bring the Trump administration on board. “I am glad talks are ongoing between the Administration and Speaker Pelosi,” Mr. McConnell, the majority leader, said on Twitter. “I hope Congress can pass bipartisan legislation to continue combating the coronavirus and keep our economy strong.”
Speaker Nancy Pelosi spoke three times by phone on Thursday morning with Steven Mnuchin, the treasury secretary, who is leading negotiations on the emergency aid measure, even as President Trump himself attacked her on Twitter for refusing to embrace the huge payroll tax cut he has proposed. The announcement offered a glimmer of hope for feverish behind-the-scenes negotiations between Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, over the contours of a bipartisan relief package to provide assistance for people affected by the spread of the disease and the resulting economic disruption.
“He had some suggestions,” she said. “All very reasonable. None would prevent us from moving forward with the bill.” Mr. McConnell’s decision averted what had been shaping up as a remarkable collapse of those talks. House Democrats scheduled a Thursday vote on their own package of paid sick leave, enhanced unemployment insurance, free coronavirus testing and food aid, and Senate Republicans, who oppose that legislation, faced the prospect of leaving Washington having taken no action to address the widening crisis.
Representative Kevin McCarthy, Republican of California and the minority leader, on Thursday said in a tweet that the measure was “not only completely partisan,” but also “unworkable.” Instead, the House postponed its vote as the negotiations appeared to progress on Thursday, and Mr. McConnell said he, too, would allow time for a deal by bringing senators back to Washington next week.
But Ms. Pelosi dismissed concerns raised by Republicans who said they were not included in the drafting, referring directly to the majority leader, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, a Republican. “Mitch McConnell called me and said, ‘You work with the secretary.’ That’s it,” she said, adding that she believed a bill could be moved quickly and that lawmakers, who are expected to leave Washington on Thursday for a schedule weeklong recess, would not need to extend their time in the Capitol. Ms. Pelosi spoke five times on the phone with Mr. Mnuchin on Thursday, even as President Trump attacked her on Twitter for refusing to embrace the huge payroll tax cut he has proposed, which has drawn bipartisan opposition.
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“I’m not sticking around because they don’t want to agree to language,” she said, adding, “we don’t need 48 hours — we need to just make a decision.” “He had some suggestions,” Ms. Pelosi said of Mr. Mnuchin. “All very reasonable. I don’t think that any of them would prevent us from moving forward with the bill.”
“Everybody could have a complaint about this or that,” she said. “I say, save it for another day.” But some major sticking points were hampering agreement, according to people familiar with the deliberations, who insisted on anonymity to describe them. Republicans balked at a sweeping proposal to provide paid sick leave, something Senate Republicans had already blocked when Democrats sought earlier in the week to bring up a separate bill. And Republicans pushing to insisting on inserting language into the emergency package to ban federal funding for most abortions.
The fast-moving developments left the fate of the aid package up in the air as the virus continued to rip through the United States, sickening more Americans and wreaking havoc on the financial markets. Should the White House and House Democrats come to terms, Mr. McConnell has indicated privately that he would quickly bring up the measure and pass it to allow Mr. Trump to sign it into law. Mr. McConnell started the day denouncing Ms. Pelosi’s plan as an “ideological wish list” and indicating that the Senate had no intention of moving ahead with it. But as negotiations proceeded, he faced mounting complaints from Republican senators — including those facing challenging re-election races — who opposed the House Democrats’ plan but were reluctant to leave Washington without voting on something to address the crisis.
But it remained unclear if that could happen before Congress departs Washington on Thursday. Some lawmakers were already calling for the break to be postponed in light of the coronavirus crisis, while others, increasingly anxious about the health risks, said it was past time for lawmakers to leave. “A haphazard bill thrown together overnight?” Senator Joni Ernst, Republican of Iowa, told reporters on Thursday. “We need to be thorough about it.”
In the absence of a detailed plan from the White House, Ms. Pelosi has pressed forward with a package of her own that leading Republicans have panned as ineffective and too costly. Senators left Washington on Thursday afternoon planning to return on Monday, even as the coronavirus took its toll on the Capitol, prompting more lawmakers to quarantine themselves and close their Capitol Hill offices. (During senators’ final vote before their departure, a page could be seen wiping down members’ desks and chairs with disinfectant.)
The Democratic bill includes $500 million to provide assistance to low-income pregnant women and some mothers who are laid off because of the outbreak; $400 million to assist food banks; food assistance flexibility for low-income workers and children who rely on free and reduced school lunch programs and $250 million to deliver packaged meals to low-income seniors. In the absence of a detailed economic rescue plan from the White House, Ms. Pelosi has pressed forward with a package of her own that leading Republicans have panned as ineffective, overreaching and too costly. Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the minority leader, said on Thursday that Republicans had problems with the bill’s paid sick leave proposals and believed it should include other measures, like tax credits for employee retention.
It also establishes up to three months of emergency paid leave benefits to all workers affected by the coronavirus, as well as an extension of eligibility for unemployment insurance.
“More support is needed to address the impacts on American families,” said Representative Nita M. Lowey, Democrat of New York and chairwoman of the House Appropriations Committee, one of the architects of the package. “This bill will help ensure the physical safety and financial security of our nation’s working families during this time of crisis.”
Mr. McCarthy told reporters that Republicans had problems with the bill’s paid sick leave proposals and believed it should include other measures, like tax credits for employee retention.
“We should not just take a rush just because there is a bill,” Mr. McCarthy said. “We want to make sure it works.”“We should not just take a rush just because there is a bill,” Mr. McCarthy said. “We want to make sure it works.”
He added: “I think we can get this done in 24 or 48 hours.” He added, “I think we can get this done in 24 or 48 hours.”
Even as Mr. Trump assailed Ms. Pelosi and Republican lawmakers groused about how little input they had in the 124-page package, the speaker and Mr. Mnuchin were privately discussing what a spokesman described as “language recommendations from the administration.” But Ms. Pelosi dismissed the concerns and said time was of the essence.
“I’m not sticking around because they don’t want to agree to language,” she said, adding, “We don’t need 48 hours — we need to just make a decision.”
“Everybody could have a complaint about this or that,” she said. “I say, save it for another day.”
The fast-moving developments left the fate of the aid package up in the air as the virus continued to rip through the United States, sickening more Americans and wreaking havoc on financial markets.
The initial Democratic bill includes $500 million to provide assistance to low-income pregnant women and some mothers who are laid off because of the outbreak; $400 million to assist food banks; food assistance flexibility for low-income workers and children who rely on free and reduced school lunch programs and $250 million to deliver packaged meals to low-income seniors. It also establishes up to three months of emergency paid leave benefits to all workers affected by the coronavirus, as well as an extension of eligibility for unemployment insurance.
“More support is needed to address the impacts on American families,” said Representative Nita M. Lowey, Democrat of New York and the chairwoman of the House Appropriations Committee, one of the architects of the package. “This bill will help ensure the physical safety and financial security of our nation’s working families during this time of crisis.”
Even as Mr. Trump assailed Ms. Pelosi and Republican lawmakers groused about how little input they had in the 124-page package, the speaker and Mr. Mnuchin were privately discussing what a spokesman described on Twitter as “language recommendations from the Administration.”
Mr. Trump appeared to endorse some of the ideas put forward by Democrats in a prime time address to the nation Wednesday evening, calling on Congress to provide emergency help for those who must stay home because they are quarantined, ill or caring for others, and asked for funds to provide low-interest loans that would help small businesses. But the White House provided no details about how he proposed to do so.Mr. Trump appeared to endorse some of the ideas put forward by Democrats in a prime time address to the nation Wednesday evening, calling on Congress to provide emergency help for those who must stay home because they are quarantined, ill or caring for others, and asked for funds to provide low-interest loans that would help small businesses. But the White House provided no details about how he proposed to do so.
With some lawmakers self-quarantining after coming into contact with a person who tested positive at a political conference and an aide to Senator Maria Cantwell, Democrat of Washington state, testing positive for the virus, at least two congressional offices on Capitol Hill were closed. During a closed lunch on Thursday, the director of Johns Hopkins’s Center for Health Security advised Senate Democrats to close their offices to help limit exposure and spread of the virus, according to a Democratic official.
The House and Senate Sergeants at Arms announced on Thursday that all tours would be canceled and access to the Capitol would be limited to lawmakers, staff members, journalists and official business visitors until April 1. Lawmakers from both chambers emerged rattled from morning briefings with top health officials, exasperated with a lack of clarity and frustrated with the lagging number of coronavirus tests.
House lawmakers emerged rattled from a morning briefing with top health officials including Dr. Anthony Fauci, the leading expert on infectious diseases. “There was lots of frustration in the room with regard to the fact that we weren’t getting the numbers that we were hoping to get,” said Senator Mike Rounds, Republican of South Dakota. When lawmakers pressed on why the United States was behind other countries on testing, Mr. Rounds said, “there were several different explanations made, but I’m not sure that there was a satisfaction with the answer.”
“Dr. Fauci, who was seen as the most transparent and competent of all, said it best when he said our system is simply not set up for testing circumstances like these,” said Representative Dean Phillips, Democrat of Minnesota. “It should have been, and in the future needs to be.” Representative Dean Phillips, Democrat of Minnesota, said that Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, “said it best when he said our system is simply not set up for testing circumstances like these.”
Mr. Phillips said lawmakers were told that roughly 10,000 tests had been conducted to date, and that 2.5 million were theoretically available in the system, but lawmakers struggled to get answers on where the tests were and how quickly they could be put into use. Mr. Phillips said that lawmakers were told that roughly 10,000 tests had been conducted, and that 2.5 million were theoretically available in the system, but that they struggled to get answers on where the tests were and how quickly they could be used.
“I speak for most who were in attendance, Democrats and Republicans, in that we were disappointed, surprised and downright concerned about how ill-prepared it seems we were and continued to be,” he said.“I speak for most who were in attendance, Democrats and Republicans, in that we were disappointed, surprised and downright concerned about how ill-prepared it seems we were and continued to be,” he said.
Nicholas Fandos and Sheryl Gay Stolberg contributed reporting. Reporting was contributed by Nicholas Fandos, Sheryl Gay Stolberg, Catie Edmondson and Jim Tankersley.