The Coronavirus Threat (Mostly) Jolts Senators Awake

(Bloomberg Opinion) --

After the Senate was extremely passive during the last round of coronavirus legislation, the chamber suddenly woke up on Monday. Or at least some senators did. Welcome back to governing, Mitt Romney and others. As Sarah Binder, a scholar of Congress, explained on Twitter: “Guessing they are eager to avoid getting jammed again by Dem House (& Mnuchin & Trump). Dem unity plus GOP deference to Mnuchin on that bill exposed McConnell to right-flank critics [about] pieces of House-passed deal.”

My general sense is that this is good news.

There are two problems with crafting policy to help the coronavirus-hit economy right now. One is that it’s unclear what the best course of action is. There’s little consensus among economists, and plenty of uncertainty — in part, of course, because it’s hard to predict public-health outcomes. The other is that the president remains an obstacle to bargaining. That was demonstrated again on Monday, when Trump not only criticized an agreement he had signed off on Friday, but criticized the very provisions his negotiators had pushed for. Even if the administration were able to negotiate in good faith, it seems incapable of formulating policy. So with the Senate at that point AWOL and the administration unable to do anything, the House took the lead.

As long as they act in good faith, we’re better off with both House Democrats and Senate Republicans proposing items for the upcoming third coronavirus bill. Members from both parties have an understandable tendency to stack these bills with their standard requests whether or not they’re appropriate for the current situation; perhaps bipartisan bidding can produce something large enough for the job.

Granted, they still didn’t finish the second bill, which contains expanded unemployment insurance, paid sick leave for some workers, and more, on Monday. There’s lots of blame to go around. Mitch McConnell sent the Senate home for the weekend instead of sticking around until the House finished work on the bill late Friday night. Then a single member, Republican Louie Gohmert of Texas, spent much of Monday threatening to block the “technical corrections” version of the bill. That was awful, given the urgency of the situation, but Gohmert’s threats were only relevant because Nancy Pelosi had sent the House home for a week — or more — making it harder for the overwhelming bipartisan majority that favored the bill to overcome Gohmert.

I’m not sure why either chamber’s members were back in their districts. It’s not as if they’re able to do normal face-to-face constituent service. Ordinarily I’ll defend district work periods, but right now all those lawmakers should be in Washington. (And yes, that may be a hardship on many of them and their families. That’s a good reminder that Congress should be paid better, and should, as an institution, arrange to house themselves close to the Capitol.)

The danger of Republican senators’ sudden interest in the substance of what they’re passing is that they’ll blow up the deal behind the bill now awaiting final action from the upper chamber. At this point, they need to just get that one passed. And then, yes, get to work on the next bill, and pass something big enough to rescue an economy in dire need of federal assistance.

1. Josh Huder on the prospect of Congress from a distance.

2. Michael Tesler on partisanship and interest in the pandemic.

3. Charles Stewart III on administering elections during Covid-19.

4. Philip Klein with an optimistic read on Trump’s Monday press conference. It certainly was an improvement.

5. But Jonathan Chait points out just one of the many things Trump at his best so far is still getting wrong.

6. Paul Farhi and Sarah Ellison on how Fox News turned on a dime.

7. And my Bloomberg Opinion colleague Joe Nocera on the coronavirus and the economy.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Tracy Walsh at twalsh67@bloomberg.net

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Jonathan Bernstein is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering politics and policy. He taught political science at the University of Texas at San Antonio and DePauw University and wrote A Plain Blog About Politics.

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