No deal after Pelosi, Mnuchin meet on economic relief but talks will continue
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin met Wednesday in an 11th-hour search for a bipartisan covid relief deal, but failed to reach agreement with just days to go before the House adjourns through the election.
Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced the House would move forward with a vote later Wednesday on a $2.2 trillion stimulus bill opposed by the GOP and which has little chance of eventually becoming law.
Both Pelosi and Mnuchin said their talks would continue. But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said the sides were “very, very far apart" -- leaving it uncertain whether any agreement struck by Pelosi and Mnuchin could even pass muster with Senate Republicans.
“Secretary Mnuchin and I had an extensive conversation and we found areas where we are seeking further clarification. Our conversations will continue,” Pelosi said in a statement following their 90-minute meeting.
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“We will be proceeding with our vote tonight on the updated Heroes Act in order to formalize our proffer to Republicans in the negotiations to address the health and economic catastrophe in our country,” Pelosi said.
Mnuchin told reporters before leaving the Capitol, “We made a lot of progress over the last few days, we still don’t have an agreement, but we have more work to do. And we’re gonna see where we end up.”
The early afternoon meeting in Pelosi’s office at the Capitol was the first in-person discussion between the House speaker and the Treasury secretary since bipartisan talks collapsed in early August.
It came with the House days away from adjourning through the election, and with the two sides still at odds on key issues including aid to cities and states, liability protections for businesses, and the overall cost of the bill.
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But with millions still out of work and signs the economic recovery is slowing, Pelosi and Mnuchin both said they wanted to make one last try to find common ground before the election.
Mnuchin described the counter-offer he was delivering to Pelosi as
similar to an approximately $1.5 trillion proposal developed by the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus in the House earlier this month. That proposal included provisions allowing the price tag to increase to around $2 trillion based on the progression of the
coronavirus, which would bring the two sides close in terms of overall spending levels.
Senate Republicans, however, have balked at spending more than $1 trillion. McConnell, who struggled to get his conference united behind a bill containing only around $300 billion in new spending several weeks ago, said it was “outlandish” to think Senate Republicans would agree to anywhere near the $2.2 trillion Democrats want to spend.
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Nevertheless, House Democratic leaders were pushing forward with a vote on their new bill, which is a slimmed-down version of the
$3.4 trillion Heroes Act the House passed in May.
It includes new stimulus checks, unemployment insurance, state and local aid, and money for schools, the U.S. Postal Service, election security and more. There is also payroll assistance for airlines that are facing the prospect of
widespread furloughs as soon as Thursday unless a new aid package is passed.
Pelosi has been under intense pressure from moderates in her caucus, including some in tough reelection fights, to take new action to address the continued economic and public health ravages of the coronavirus.
Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) has been among those pushing for the House to vote on a new bill, since it’s been months since House Democrats pushed through the Heroes Act, which the White House and Senate Republicans ignored. Hoyer said that he hoped Pelosi and Mnuchin could reach agreement, but said either way the House should vote, allowing members to return home to campaign for re-election able to show that at least they tried.
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“We’re going to do the best we can and we’re going to make sure the position of our party is known to the American people in terms of trying to help them at this time of great crisis,” Hoyer told reporters on a conference call.
Pelosi has shown little sign she’s willing to back down from her $2.2 trillion price tag, with Democrats contending they’ve already compromised. On a private call with House Democrats on Wednesday morning, Pelosi said the American people are worth the $2.2 trillion, according to two people on the call who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe it.
She also said that state and local aid and legal liability protections continue to be obstacles to a deal. Republicans and the Trump administration favor liability protections Democrats oppose, while opposing the generous state and local aid Democrats want. The Democrats’ new bill has about $500 billion for state and local governments, about half as much as the original Heroes Act.
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Congress passed four bills totaling an unprecedented $3 trillion in aid in the spring, but since then the bipartisan urgency that existed at the beginning of the pandemic has dissipated and the Senate hasn’t passed a related bill since. Talks involving Mnuchin and Pelosi collapsed in August and were
renewed only a few days ago.
Millions
remain unemployed and deaths from the coronavirus continue to mount, but the Trump administration continues to sound bullish about the economy.
“The economy is doing much better than anyone expected. … You’ve seen a very good rebound, and you’re going to see a very good quarter," Mnuchin said Wednesday, while contending that “more fiscal response will help the economy.”
Stephen Moore, an outside economic adviser to the White House, said he told Trump at a meeting at the White House about 10 days ago that a stimulus deal would do little to boost the president’s electoral prospects. Moore said he told the president the benefits of any stimulus deal reached now would not boost the economy until 2021 or December at the earliest.
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