Congress says $ 908 billion coronavirus relief bill is in the pipeline soon – live | US News

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo quarantines after coming in contact with someone who has tested positive for Covid-19. The state department said Pompeo has been negative, but that he is being monitored by medical professionals. The department did not identify who the infected person is for privacy reasons.

The White House has been subjected to its planning for a holiday season full of festivities amid the pandemic. The White House is planning at least 25 covered parties in December, ignoring warnings to limit meetings indoors, where the virus is more likely to spread. The State Department held a party yesterday attended by dozens of diplomats, although only a small fraction of the 900 invited attendees showed up. Pompeo and his wife, Susan, did not appear although the secretary had planned to speak at the event.

U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren is writing a book that will be “a passionate pleasure for political transformation,” focusing on six key life experiences that have shaped her political stances.

In a statement, Warren said the book “is especially personal: I carry the pieces of who I am in the struggle for real change, and I believe with passion that we are at a time when extraordinary changes are possible.” The title refers to a line that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said about Warren: “However, he persisted,” when he rebuked the senator for delivering “a long speech” on the Senate floor. in 2017.

The book is scheduled for April 20th.

Two former officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), both appointed by Trump, made public allegations that the White House constantly intervened with CDC guidelines, trying to soften public health guidelines and updates. about Covid-19 that the agency released to the public.

Kyle McGowan, a former CDC chief of staff, and his deputy, Amanda Campbell, both 34, spoke to the New York Times in a distressing interview published this morning. McGowan described the White House’s influence on the CDC as “a hand that grabs something and closes slowly, closes, closes, closes until you realize that by mid-summer, it has a full understanding of everything there is. has to the CDC “.

They described how the agency’s documents went through several named politicians in Washington, many of whom had no public health experience. The guidelines will be modified by White House Budget Director Russell Vought, former senior adviser Kellyanne Conway and even Ivanka Trump.

“Every time science collided with messaging, messaging won,” McGowan said.

Just as the two main Democratic leaders in Congress are ending coronavirus stimulus negotiations with Republicans, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told the Interception that she believes it is time for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to leave, and Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer.

The U.S. representative in New York said the leadership has made no “real preparation for a next generation of leadership.” The power of both sides has focused on leadership. “An individual member has much less power than 30, 40, 50 years ago,” he said.

Pelosi’s role as speaker will be voted on in January. He will probably be able to keep his seat, but Ocasio-Cortez’s comments allude to continued discontent among Democratic party progressives against established moderate leadership.

Ocasio-Cortez said she herself would not be running for president of the House, alleging her lack of experience. “The house is extraordinarily complex and I’m not ready,” he said. “It simply came to our notice then. I know I couldn’t do the job. ”

While the rep believes it’s time for Schumer and Pelosi to leave, she noted that there is no plan to replace them and “if you create this void, there are so many nefarious forces at play to fill that void with something even worse. “, he said. dit.

More information on the coronavirus stimulus package comes out this morning. Several reports confirm that the package is likely to be around $ 900 billion and may include another round of stimulus checks.

The checks are likely to be less than the $ 1,200 that were sent to Americans in April, Politico reports. It doesn’t seem to include funding for state and local governments, which Democrats were pressuring, or Mitch McConnell’s “shield of responsibility” for companies to protect them from Covid-related lawsuits.

Said Jake Sherman of Politico Twitter that the package is almost ready and that negotiations could end as early as this morning, probably if all goes well.

The bill may receive a boost from progressive Democrats. Pramila Jayapal, president of the Progressive Congress, said in a statement that the group is “united” in the position that “any package should include direct survival controls and better unemployment assistance.”

U.S. Rep. Rashida Talib, vice president of the caucus, tweeted this morning that she will not vote on a bill that does not have checks or unemployment insurance.

Good morning, this is Lauren Aratani.

Top congressional leaders will continue talks on the anticipated second coronavirus stimulus package. After months of negotiations – interrupted by the confirmation of a new Supreme Court Justice and the presidential election – the top Democratic and Republican leaders indicated yesterday that they are finally on track to agree on a new bill.

For months, Republicans have been looking for a stimulus package at a much lower price than Democrats want. The two sides appear to have found common ground on a $ 908 billion relief package, more than a trillion dollars less than the first stimulus package.

Democrats have expressed frustration at the low price of the bill. Speaking to Good Morning America, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris said: “I do not understand the hesitation. People are suffering. ”

“Moratoriums on evictions and foreclosures are about to end. The extensions people need to get benefits are very real. And the people here in Washington DC have to stop living in a bubble, ”he continued.

But congressional leaders seem to be relieved that the talks are headed at least somewhere. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said yesterday that both sides “are making significant progress.”

“I am optimistic that we will be able to complete an understanding soon,” McConnell told reporters yesterday. “We’re not leaving here without a Covid package.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said leaders will resume talks today soon and “we will be on time to get the job done.”

Here’s what happens most:

• Yesterday, at a rally in Atlanta, Joe Biden criticized Georgia Republican Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler for participating in the narrative of Donald Trump’s election fraud. Biden said the two “fully accepted the invalidity of nearly 5 million votes from Georgia.” Early voting in Georgia began this week as all eyes are on the two races that will determine which party will control the U.S. Senate.
• The U.S. saw 198,357 new cases of Covid-19 yesterday and 3,019 deaths according to Johns Hopkins University, though skepticism about public health measures such as mask warrants continues to permeate the country’s communities. A Republican mayor in Kansas resigned after receiving an intense backlash for supporting a masked warrant.

Stay tuned for more live updates.