Washington – Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Thursday that the Senate is “very likely” to function over the weekend as Congress leaders soar to reach an agreement on a government funding measure and a coronavirus relief bill.
The Republican leader suggested that Congress should pass an ongoing short-term resolution to keep the government open after Friday’s deadline to avoid a closure and give lawmakers more time to negotiate.
“We’ll stay here, here, until we’re done, even if that means working over the weekend, which is very likely,” McConnell said in a speech on the Senate floor Thursday. McConnell added that if an ongoing resolution was needed, he hoped to extend the deadline to fund the government in a “short period of time.”
McConnell said Thursday later that “talks continue” and that negotiators are “moving forward.” President Nancy Pelosi echoed McConnell’s words Thursday evening and said negotiators “are fine.”
“We’ll have our ad when we have it,” Pelosi said.
Last week, Congress passed an ongoing resolution to extend the deadline for government funding to Dec. 18, but it does not appear to have been long enough for negotiations for lawmakers to draft an omnibus spending bill. that it be mutual in agreement with the Democrats who control the House and the Republican majority in the Senate. Lawmakers also want to add a coronavirus relief bill to this omnibus measure and Congress leaders are still negotiating that deal.
The need to pass an assistance bill is as urgent as a general spending bill. About 12 million Americans are on the verge of losing unemployment benefits the day after Christmas, with the expiration of the pandemic unemployment assistance programs and the pandemic emergency unemployment compensation programs, established in the spring by the CARES law. About 500,000 people applied for the Emergency Unemployment Compensation Program, intended to help concert workers, the week ending Dec. 12.
There is also the Lost Wage Assistance program, created by Trump by executive order in August largely taken advantage of. Trump signed the order ordering states to pay $ 300 in additional weekly benefits in addition to unemployment insurance in August, following a popular provision in the CARES Act that provided $ 600 a week additional unemployment benefits expire at the end of July. Meanwhile, about 885,000 people filed initial unemployment claims the week ended Dec. 12, the Department of Labor said Thursday, an increase of 23,000 from the previous week.
Last week, a bipartisan, bicameral group of lawmakers introduced two $ 908 billion bills that would address some of those issues, including a provision to restore weekly unemployment benefits to $ 300 a week for four months.
McConnell, President Nancy Pelosi, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy have held talks in recent days with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to reach an agreement on a bill based largely on this framework. The bill they are negotiating would probably also cost about $ 900 billion and would also include a second round of direct payments to Americans with a certain revenue threshold.
Top lawmakers have insisted they are approaching an agreement on a relief bill, although the time to reach an agreement is running out. Schumer told reporters Wednesday that negotiators are “very close” to a deal.
“We’re very close. We’re moving very well. We feel pretty good,” Schumer said.
House majority leader Steny Hoyer said Thursday that Pelosi had told him negotiators were “very close.”
“I think we’re very close. I hope that today, hopefully, in a few hours we will reach an agreement and we will be able to reach that agreement on paper,” Hoyer told CBS News. He also said the second round of direct checks would likely be around $ 700 for individuals and $ 1,400 for couples, with extra money for children.
Hoyer seemed more optimistic than McConnell, saying the bus was largely “ready.”
In his speech Thursday, McConnell said he did not want Congress to continue “haggling and that this kind of deal was an ordinary political exercise.”
“After all these months, struggling Americans don’t just need action. They need quick action,” McConnell said.
The House approved a $ 3.4 trillion massive relief bill in May and a smaller one in October, but McConnell and other Republicans refused to consider those bills because of the price. McConnell and Senate Republicans introduced a $ 500 billion bill, but were blocked several times in the Senate by Democrats who argued it didn’t go far enough.
But with a government shutdown approaching and a new administration waiting in the hands to take office next year, congressional leaders have finally decided to start negotiating seriously.
“I hope we also remember the urgency of the situation for millions and millions of fellow citizens,” McConnell said Thursday, nearly nine months after the CARES law was signed.
Nancy Cordes contributed to the reports.