House Leaders Scrap Return Next Week on Virus Risk in Washington
House Won’t Return to Session Next Week, a Top Democrat Says in Reversal
(Bloomberg) -- The U.S. House won’t return to Washington next week after all, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told reporters Tuesday, citing the continued risk from the spread of the coronavirus in the Washington area.
“The House physician’s view was that there was a risk to members that he would not recommend taking,” Hoyer said. The doctor said infection numbers in Washington were still rising and that the region had “hot spots,” the Maryland Democrat said.
Hoyer also said there was no need to press for a return in part because the next phase of coronavirus aid legislation won’t be ready for action.
Hoyer had told Democratic lawmakers on a conference call Monday that the House would be in session next week and that votes may be held. But Hoyer said he reversed course after talking later in the day with Congress’ Attending Physician Brian Monahan. He said the hope is the House “would come back very soon” to a new bill to provide additional economic relief for those feeling the impact of the pandemic.
The reversal by Hoyer reflects some of the tough decisions facing state governments, businesses and individuals over whether to continue isolation to stop the virus, which has caused more than 56,000 deaths in the U.S., from spreading. Texas and Ohio are among the states moving to re-open their economies as soon as Friday, while New York, New Jersey and Louisiana plan to keep stay-at-home policies in place until at least next month.
Hoyer said House Democrats are split on whether to return to Washington. Some lawmakers are arguing they want to get back to show Americans they are working on coronavirus responses and other legislation, he said. Other members say the House ought to wait because there is no immediate major legislation ready to be acted on -- and it would be better to do several major bills at one time on the House floor when possible.
Hoyer said he believes committees can do much of their work remotely -- and he will be meeting later Tuesday with Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy to further discuss that.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Monday his chamber plans to return to Washington May 4 and he has been sketching out Republican priorities for the next round of aid legislation. His spokesman, David Popp, tweeted Tuesday that the schedule still stands.
McConnell also said Monday he would insist on liability protections for business owners who reopen and indicated he would be open to some aid for beleaguered states.
Democrats have been pushing in a next bill to boost assistance to state and local governments. Hoyer did not elaborate on how use of that aid could be set up, or any tradeoffs House Democrats might be willing to put in place to reach a deal with Republicans.
“Most of them have had budgets that have been adopted without the context of the coronavirus” and now are on the front line battling the pandemic, Hoyer said. The federal response should not be to just tell the states, “you’re on your own,” or “they could go bankrupt.”
“No doubt the pension programs in states are troubled,” said Hoyer. “And they may be additionally troubled because money is being diverted from the states’ contributions to those programs to the coronavirus fight.”
“We don’t want to put the states in the position where they have to decrease personnel for acting on the behalf of the American people,” Hoyer said. “The figure the governors have talked about is $500 billion, he said. “But that has not been decided.”
Hoyer said Democrats haven’t yet discussed the merits of liability protections for businesses.
“We really haven’t talked about that idea. But we certainly don’t think that acting on behalf of individuals and employees in a positive sense should be contingent upon liability questions,” he said.
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