作为小说冠状病毒病例在全国范围内上升，延长大流行后创建的经济生命线项目的最后期限迫在眉睫，国会领导人仍远未就下一个救助法案的总体价格或应该包含的内容达成一致。关键的失业救济金将在月底到期，立法者只有11天的时间来采取行动。
参议院多数党领袖米奇·麦康奈尔(Mitch McConnell)周四在其家乡举行的一次活动中表示，他预计下周将公布他的会议法案大纲，两名共和党高级助手表示，该法案将耗资约1万亿至1.3万亿美元。
但是众议院议长南希·佩洛西嘲笑这个数目太少，指出她的议院通过了超过3万亿美元的议案冠状病毒救济法案两个月前，她补充说她认为反对党最终会让步。
“我毫不怀疑他们会回心转意，”皮奥尔西在接受彭博采访时说。“一开始他们说，‘不，我们已经花够了钱。’现在，它们达到了1.3万亿美元。这还不够。我们有3.4万亿美元。"
但双方在几个关键领域仍存在很大分歧。
参议院民主党人坚持众议院通过的法案，该法案包括对一线工作人员、州和地方政府的援助，以及更多用于医院、检测、学校、营养和住房援助的资金。参议院民主党人正寻求增加4300亿美元用于教育相关需求。
周四，参议院民主党领袖查克·舒默和他的党团公布了一项3500亿美元的计划，旨在援助受病毒严重影响的有色人种社区。10点建议将需要1，500亿美元的新资金，其余部分来自未用资金冠状病毒贷款项目。它将被用于儿童保育、职业培训、风险青年倡议、住房税收抵免、反贫困项目等等。
在这个星期二，2020年2月11日，图片，南希佩洛西和查克舒默在华盛顿国会山的新闻发布会上发言。
麦康奈尔周四概述了他的法案，称四个关键主题将占上风:责任保护、学校、就业和医疗保健。
共和党领袖在诉讼盾牌上划了一条红线，这是民主党人反对的。但麦康奈尔周四表示，共和党将提出的立法将“涵盖从12月19日至2024年左右的时期，涵盖所有人:医院、医生、护士、企业、学校、学院、大学和中小学。”任何人都不应该在我们已经发现的与冠状病毒有关的大流行爆发后，面临一系列的诉讼。”
罗伊·布朗特参议员。，一位领导成员和医疗保健支出小组委员会主席，周四说他的那部分法案-包括医疗保健，教育，病毒检测和疫苗开发-已经接近完成。
布朗特对记者说:“我们很接近了。”他说，他和参议院拨款委员会主席理查·谢尔比都是共和党人。，一直与白宫办公厅主任马克·梅多斯合作。
布朗特说，成员们仍在努力解决如何以及是否激励学校重新开放的问题，同时对病毒在许多州的死灰复燃保持敏感，但他表示，无论学校是否开放，学生是否在家学习，都需要资金。
“我还没决定。我的观点是，如果你在远程学习，学校将会有大量的费用不变。你的教职员工还是要付工资的。必须支付大量的员工和管理人员的费用，你的通信费用也必须增加。我不认为这应该完全基于你是否回到了学校的教室。但我认为，部分资金可能与此有关，因为重新开放这些建筑会增加成本。”
就麦康奈尔而言，他表示，这一决定是地方和家长必须做出的决定，这一立场似乎与唐纳德·特朗普总统的立场不一致。特朗普总统威胁要为那些拒绝在疫情中重新开业的机构保留联邦资金。
布朗特说，他希望看到学校进行“一种简单的接触式反应测试，这样你就可以在15分钟左右的时间内轻松地进行测试，并知道结果是什么，”考虑到全国范围内的测试短缺和测试结果的滞后时间，这一举措在短期内似乎不太可能实现。
2020年6月30日，星期二，在美国华盛顿特区国会山，来自肯塔基州的共和党人米奇·麦康奈尔在参议院共和党人政策午餐会后的新闻发布会上发言。
作为国家的失业率仍然处于历史高位看来某些立法者将继续扩大大流行失业救济。但这些好处将在本月底用完，这是国会不太可能遵守的最后期限。
共和党人反对最初的《关心法案》病毒救济法案中规定的每周600美元的统一费率，声称这不利于工作对于那些在病毒来袭前收入减少的人来说。参议院财政委员会主席查克·格拉斯利将负责该法案的这一部分，他已经表示，这项福利可能会逐渐减少，而不是突然终止。
俄亥俄州参议员罗布·波特曼领导的一些共和党人推动了返岗奖金，但经济分析师质疑这一提议的可行性。
还有一个悬而未决的问题是，是否要给中等收入的美国人再发一轮刺激支票，这是上一个刺激法案中更受欢迎的条款之一。特朗普表示支持，布朗特周四表示他“对此持开放态度。”
对于向各州和各地区提供多少援助也存在分歧，尽管布朗特承认，在此前拨款的1500亿美元中，无论增加多少，都可能包含许多州长和市长所要求的支出灵活性。许多人面临着不断上升的赤字，但由于之前的救助法案中包含的限制，他们无法使用联邦援助，共和党人担心利用援助来偿还多年来一直亏损的州养老基金。
达成更多共识的一个领域是对受经济衰退打击的小企业的援助。
广受欢迎的薪酬保障计划(Parrency Protection)的有效期延长至8月8日，该计划可能会进行改革，以针对最小的企业，尤其是少数民族和女性所有的企业，提供低息、可原谅的贷款，帮助企业主在疫情期间留住员工。但许多企业要求有机会申请第二笔公私伙伴关系贷款，目前还不清楚共和党人是否会批准这一举措，因为这将抬高该法案的整体价格。
2017年11月9日，米奇·麦康奈尔，查克·舒默·南希·佩洛西在华盛顿出席纪念第一反应者的仪式。
下一个一揽子计划的总规模肯定会成为谈判的主要障碍。尽管两党谈判已经在成员层面展开，但还没有在领导层展开，这使得完成工作的时间表变得复杂。
没有人知道特朗普想要什么。他过去一直坚持削减工资税，尽管一些共和党人，如共和党参议员林赛·格雷厄姆，表示他们支持这一想法，但大多数人并不支持。
麦康奈尔周四表示，他知道前进的道路不会一帆风顺。
麦康奈尔说，周中公布他的计划“将只是开始这个过程。”
“制定法律并不容易。尽管《关爱法案》最终获得一致通过，但这已经是四个月之后了。”“我们离选举更近了。让每个人都呆在同一个地方在政治上更具挑战性。因此，我并不认为我们的下一个产品会因为离下一次选举更近而不再有争议和党派之争。”
Congressional leaders at odds over next coronavirus relief package
As novelcoronaviruscases rise around the country and deadlines loom to extend economic lifeline programs created in the wake of the pandemic, congressional leaders are still far from agreement on an overall price tag for the next relief bill or what should be in it. Key jobless benefits run out at the end of the month, leaving lawmakers just 11 days to act.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said at an event on Thursday in his home state he expects to unveil the outlines of his conference's bill next week, which two senior GOP aides said will come in at roughly $1 trillion to $1.3 trillion.
But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi derided that sum as far too little, pointing to her chamber's passage of a more than $3 trillioncoronavirus relief billtwo months ago while adding that she thought the opposition party would eventually cave.
"I have no doubt they will come around," Peolsi said in a Bloomberg interview. "In the beginning they said, 'No, we have spent enough money.' Now, they're at $1.3 trillion. That's not enough. We have $3.4 trillion."
But the two sides remain far apart in several key areas.
Senate Democrats have insisted on the House-passed bill that includes aid for front-line workers, state and local governments, and more money for hospitals, testing, schools, nutrition and housing assistance. Senate Democrats are seeking to add an additional $430 billion for education-related needs.
And on Thursday, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and his caucus unveiled a $350 billion plan to target aid to communities of color, which have been disproportionately hit by the virus. The 10-point proposal would require $150 billion in new funds with the remainder from unspentcoronavirusloan programs. It would be used for child care, job training, at-risk youth initiatives, housing tax credits, anti-poverty programs and more.
In this Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2020, image, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer speak during a news conference, on Capitol Hill, in Washington.
Outlining his bill Thursday, McConnell said four key themes will prevail: liability protection, schools, jobs and health care.
The GOP leader has drawn a red line on the lawsuit shield, something Democrats oppose. But McConnell was unbowed Thursday, saying the legislation Republicans will put forward will "cover the period from Dec. 19 up until about 2024, and it covers everybody: hospitals, doctors, nurses, businesses, schools, colleges, universities, K-12 (schools). Nobody should have to face an epidemic of lawsuits on the heels of the pandemic that we already have related to the coronavirus."
Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., a member of leadership and chairman of the Health Care Spending Subcommittee, said Thursday that his piece of the bill -- which includes health care, education, virus testing and vaccine development -- was nearly done.
"We're close," Blunt told reporters, saying he and Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., who chairs the Health Committee, and Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby, R-Ala., have been working with White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.
Blunt said members were still grappling with how and whether to incentivize schools to reopen while being sensitive to the resurgence of the virus in many states, but he indicated that funding would be needed, regardless of whether schools are open or students are learning from home.
"I'm undecided yet. My view is that schools are going to have a significant number of expenses that don't change if you're learning at a distance. Your faculty still has to be paid. An awful lot of the staff and administrators have to be paid, and your communication costs have to go up. I don't think it should be exclusively based on whether you're back in a school room or not. But I think it's likely that some of the funding will relate to that, because there are additional costs when you reopen these buildings."
McConnell, for his part, indicated that the decision was one localities and parents would have to make, a position that appears as odds with President Donald Trump, who has threatened to withhold federal funds for those institutions that refuse to reopen amid the pandemic.
Blunt said he wants to see schools have "an easily taken, point-of-contact response kind of test, so that you can take a test easily and know within 15 minutes or so what the results are," a move that seems unlikely anytime soon given the testing shortages and lag time for results across the country.
Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky, speaks during a news conference following the Senate Republicans policy luncheon, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Tuesday, June 30, 2020.
As the nation'sunemployment rate remains historically high, it seems certain lawmakers will continue expanded pandemic jobless benefits. But those benefits are set to run out at the end of this month, a deadline Congress is unlikely to meet.
Republicans have fought against a flat $600-per-week rate created under the original CARES Act virus relief bill,claiming it is a disincentive to workfor those who made less before the virus hit. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, who would manage that portion of the bill, has indicated that the benefit is likely to taper off and not end abruptly.
Some Republicans, led by Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio, have pushed a back-to-work incentive payment, but economic analysts have questioned the workability of such a proposal.
And there is still a lingering question about whether or not to send Americans of modest income another round of stimulus checks, one of the more popular provisions of the last stimulus bill. Trump has expressed support, and Blunt said Thursday he was "open to it."
There is also a disagreement over how much aid to send to states and localities, though Blunt conceded that whatever amount is added to the previously appropriated $150 billion would likely contain the flexibility in spending many governors and mayors have pleaded for. Many have faced rising deficits, but have been unable to use federal aid due to restrictions built into the previous relief bill, with Republicans fearing a use of aid to pay off state pension funds that have been in the red for years.
The one area where there is far more agreement is aid to small businesses crushed by the recession.
The popular Paycheck Protection Program, which was renewed until Aug. 8, is likely to be reformed to target the smallest of businesses, in particular minority and women-owned businesses with low interest, forgivable loans designed to help owners retain employees through the pandemic. But many businesses have requested a chance to apply for a second PPP loan, and it is unclear if Republicans will approve such a move as it would swell the overall price tag of the bill.
Mitch McConnell, Chuck Schumer Nancy Pelosi attend a ceremony honoring first responders in Washington, Nov. 9, 2017.
The total size of the next package is sure to be a major roadblock to negotiations. And while bipartisan talks have been happening at the member level, they have yet to happen on a leadership level, complicating the timeline for completing work.
And no one is sure what Trump will want. He has, in the past, insisted on a payroll tax cut, and though some Republicans, like Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., have said they support the idea, most do not.
McConnell said on Thursday he knows the path forward will not be an easy one.
Unveiling his plan mid-week "will just begin the process," McConnell said.
"Making laws is not easy. And even though the CARES Act ended up passing unanimously, this is four months later," he said. "We're much closer to the election. It's much more challenging politically to get everybody in the same place. So I'm not predicting that our next product is going to be without more -- dramatically more -- controversy and partisanship because of the proximity to the next election."
