华盛顿——一个由两党议员组成的小组周一公布了一份详细的新冠肺炎援助提案，希望该提案能成为其战斗领导人在试图就新一轮病毒救援谈判达成最终协议时效仿的榜样。
十几名立法者公布了两项法案。一个是7480亿美元的一揽子援助计划，其中包括为陷入困境的企业、失业者、学校和疫苗分发提供资金。另一项法案提出了一项1600亿美元的州和地方政府援助计划，得到了民主党和共和党寻求的保护企业免受COVID相关诉讼的条款的支持。但是协议被证明是不可能的，大多数民主党人反对共和党参议员俄亥俄州的罗布·波特曼在债务问题上达成妥协。
他们的提议——以及更广泛的新冠肺炎援助——的前进道路仍不明朗。加州众议院议长南希·佩洛西(Nancy Pelosi)和财政部长史蒂文·姆努钦(Steven Mnuchin)正在领导层就病毒救助和政府资金进行平行谈判。参议院多数党领袖米奇·麦康奈尔。这也是任何协议都可能被伪造的地方。
领导层谈判中悬而未决的问题包括可能对个人进行的第二轮直接支付、300美元奖金的失业福利计划、州和地方援助，以及共和党寻求的针对新冠肺炎相关诉讼的责任保护。
缅因州参议员苏珊·科林斯说，她希望国会山最高领导人和政府将把这些提议作为COVID救助计划的基础，“这是我们苦苦挣扎的家庭、遭受重创的小企业、压力重重的医疗保健提供商、不堪重负的邮政服务、面临挑战的学校以及其他许多人迫切需要的。”
一个关键的权衡包括对州和地方政府的援助，这是佩洛西的重中之重，以及责任盾牌，这是麦康奈尔的最高要求。这位肯塔基州共和党人提出了一种要么全有要么全无的方法，在这种方法中，两种想法的命运都与另一种联系在一起——要么两者都增加，要么两者都放弃。到目前为止，佩洛西坚持要求增加州和地方援助，要求麦康奈尔在他的宠物条款上做出妥协。协议仍然难以达成。
但据报道，另一个关键方面也取得了进展，议员们拼凑了一个年终一揽子资助计划，这将是特朗普总统任期内最后一项重要立法的基础。
周五午夜是向唐纳德·特朗普总统提交完整方案的预期截止日期，届时，随着上周临时拨款法案的到期，政府将部分关闭。但不能保证这项大规模的年终措施会及时完成。如果谈判拖延，可能需要更多的临时法案。
与此同时，参与谈判的一名国会助理表示，1.4万亿美元总括支出法案的谈判“基本完成”。虽然细节被紧紧抓住，“现状是普遍的。”这意味着特朗普将获得另外14亿美元左右的最后一笔款项，以继续修建他长期寻求的美墨边境墙。
共和党人成功地否决了一项120亿美元的计划，该计划旨在打破去年的预算小协议，利用会计手段增加退伍军人医疗保健资金，以适应私营医疗保健服务提供商扩大医疗保健服务覆盖面带来的大幅成本增加。相反，一系列不同的举措被用来为其他国内项目提供同等的支出增长。
争论的焦点是在分裂的政府下国会山议程的两大支柱——新冠肺炎纾困和国会通过日常机构拨款法案的年度拨款程序。选举年政治和参议院令人恼火的功能失调已经使这两个议题的立法停滞了几个月。
选举后的跛脚鸭会议是结束今年未完成工作的最后一次机会，这是所有参与者的目标，尽管他们迄今为止在达成整合该措施所需的经常棘手的妥协方面进展缓慢。
佩洛西和姆努钦在周日下午发表了讲话，他们可能是观看比赛的关键一对。她没有放弃获得州和地方援助的努力，这是3月份近2万亿美元的关爱法案的一部分。
当选总统乔·拜登想要尽可能多的COVID救济，但对谈判没有直接影响。虽然他将在明年就职后赋予民主党权力，但像麦康奈尔这样的共和党领导人正在采取强硬态度，并迫使佩洛西缩减她的要求。虽然麦康奈尔支持今年夏天每周300美元的额外失业救济金，但他在11月大选后退缩了。
马里兰州第二大众议院民主党人斯坦尼·霍耶(Steny Hoyer)周日在CNN的一次露面中表现出灵活性，共和党人将其解释为民主党进一步撤退的先兆。
霍耶说:“立法过程是一个相互让步的过程，我刚才提到的项目对完成任务绝对至关重要，尽管我认为州和地方的援助至关重要，但其他的也至关重要。”。
德克萨斯州参议员约翰·科宁说:“如果我们至少在周三之前还没有看到相当具体的东西，我会感到震惊。”。“因为我们必须在周五之前投票决定这件事，然后离开这里。”
此外，还达成了一项协议，以遏制“意外医疗账单”，即由保险公司提供商网络之外的医生或医院治疗的健康保险患者收取的惊人高费用。对于接受紧急服务的人和接受复杂手术的病人来说，这是一个特殊的问题，因为他们可能需要请另一位专家。
尽管大多数立法者和白宫一致认为，患者不应面临数千美元的意外账单，但立法进展缓慢。一方面是消费者团体和保险公司之间的游说战，另一方面是医生和医疗实践投资者之间的游说战，阻碍了这一进程。潜在的妥协将禁止急诊室访问和预定程序的意外法案，但麦康奈尔尚未批准该协议。
Crunch time for COVID-19 relief as bipartisan bills unveiled
WASHINGTON -- A bipartisan group of lawmakers unveiled a detailed COVID-19 aid proposal on Monday in hopes it would serve as a model for its battling leaders to follow as they try to negotiate a final agreement on a new round of virus relief.
The dozen or so lawmakers unveiled two bills. One is a $748 billion aid package containing money for struggling businesses, the unemployed, schools, and for vaccine distribution. The other bill proposes a $160 billion aid package for state and local governments that's favored by Democrats and GOP-sought provisions shielding businesses from COVID-related lawsuits. But agreement proved impossible and most Democrats opposed a compromise on the liability issue forged by GOP Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio.
The path forward for their proposals — and for COVID-19 aid more generally — remains unclear. Parallel negotiations over virus relief and government funding are proceeding on the leadership level involving House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and that's where any agreement is likely to be forged.
Outstanding issues in the leadership talks include a potential second round of direct payments to individuals, a plan for $300 bonus unemployment benefits, state and local aid, and the GOP-sought liability shield against COVID-19-related lawsuits.
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said she hoped that top Capitol Hill leaders and the administration will use the proposals as the basis for a COVID-relief package "that is urgently needed by our struggling families, our hard-hit small businesses, our stressed-out health care providers, our overwhelmed Postal Service, our challenged schools, and so many others."
A key tradeoff involves aid to states and local governments, a top Pelosi priority, and the liability shield, a top demand of McConnell. The Kentucky Republican has suggested an all-or-nothing approach in which the fate of both ideas is linked to the other — either both are added or both are dropped. Pelosi is insisting, so far, that state and local aid be added, demanding that McConnell compromise on his pet provision. Agreement remains elusive.
But progress was being reported on another key front, too, as lawmakers cobbled together a year-end catchall funding package that will be the basis for the last significant legislation of the Trump presidency.
There's a hoped-for deadline of midnight Friday to deliver the completed package to President Donald Trump, which is when a partial government shutdown would arrive with the expiration of last week's temporary funding bill. But there's no guarantee that the massive year-end measure will be completed in time. If the talks drag, further temporary bills could be needed.
Meanwhile, negotiations on a $1.4 trillion catchall spending bill are “essentially finished," said a congressional aide participating in the talks. While details are closely held, “the status quo is prevailing." That means Trump would get another $1.4 billion or so for a final installment to continue construction of his long-sought U.S.-Mexico border wall.
Republicans have succeeded in killing a $12 billion plan to break last year's budget mini-agreement by using accounting maneuvers to pad veterans health care funding to accommodate big cost increases from expanding access to health care services from private providers. Instead, a different set of moves is being employed to provide for equivalent spending increases for other domestic programs.
At issue are two long-delayed pillars of Capitol Hill's agenda under divided government — COVID-19 relief and the annual appropriations process by which Congress passes day-to-day agency funding bills. Election-year politics and the maddening dysfunction of the Senate have stalled legislation on both topics for months.
The post-election lame-duck session is the last chance to wrap up the unfinished work this year, a goal of all involved, though they have been slow until now to forge the often-tricky compromises required to pull the measure together.
Pelosi and Mnuchin spoke Sunday afternoon and are likely to be the crucial pair to watch going down the stretch. She has not thrown in the towel on her drive to obtain state and local aid, which was part of the almost $2 trillion CARES Act in March.
President-elect Joe Biden wants as much COVID relief as possible but has no direct influence on the negotiations. While he'll empower Democrats after taking office next year, GOP leaders like McConnell are playing hardball and have forced Pelosi to scale back her demands. And while McConnell supported a $300 per week bonus unemployment benefit this summer, he's pulled back after the November election.
No. 2 House Democrat Steny Hoyer of Maryland displayed flexibility in an appearance on CNN on Sunday that Republicans interpreted as a harbinger of further Democratic retreat.
“The legislative process is a give and take and the items that I just mentioned are absolutely critical to get done, and although I think state and local assistance is critically important, the others are critically important too," Hoyer said.
“I would be shocked if we didn’t see something pretty concrete by at least Wednesday," said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas. “Because we got to vote on this thing by Friday and get out of here."
Also in the mix is a deal to curb “surprise medical bills,” the astonishingly high fees charged to patients with health insurance when they are treated by a doctor or hospital outside of their insurer’s provider network. It’s a particular problem for people getting emergency services and for patients undergoing complex surgeries where another specialist might have to be called in.
Although there’s agreement among most lawmakers and the White House that patients should not face thousands of dollars in unexpected bills, legislation has been slow to gel. It’s been blocked by a lobbying war between consumer groups and insurers on one side, and on the other, doctors and investors in medical practices. The potential compromise would ban surprise bills for emergency room visits and scheduled procedures, but McConnell has yet to endorse the agreement.
