Senate on Track to Pass Virus Bill With Promise for More Later
House Virus-Relief Bill Goes to Senate After Delays Over Fixes
(Bloomberg) -- Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is rallying Senate Republicans to quickly pass the House package of virus-related economic measures, seeking to overcome any reservations by looking ahead to the next round of fiscal stimulus.
The Senate could take up the House-passed bill as soon as Tuesday, when Mnuchin is planning to be back on Capitol Hill to meet with Senate Republicans during their weekly lunch.
The House on Monday passed technical corrections to its coronavirus bill, which was first crafted over a week ago as the virus was intensifying in the U.S. Now the White House and most lawmakers are eager to send the bill to President Donald Trump for his signature and to follow up with more ambitious bills.
“We have a lot more work to do,” Mnuchin said Monday on Capitol Hill. He said he spoke with Republican senators about about additional economic stimulus bills they will work on “ASAP.”
Plunging stock prices and the abrupt drop-off of consumer spending during a time of social distancing has crystallized the need for Congress to act quickly and boldly. The Federal Reserve has already used much of its toolbox to shore up the economy, leaving policymakers to dull the extent of the damage with fiscal stimulus.
The House bill, negotiated by Mnuchin and Speaker Nancy Pelosi last week and blessed by the president, pays for virus testing, bolsters unemployment and food assistance and will send tens of billions in fresh aid to states.
Its centerpiece gives workers at companies with fewer than 500 employees up to 12 weeks of paid family and sick leave to deal with issues involving the coronavirus, including staying home to care for children home from school. The tax credits for paid family, sick and medical leave in the virus bill would cost nearly $104.9 billion, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation.
Paid Sick Leave
Although Trump said earlier Monday he wanted all workers to be covered by the paid leave provision and said the Senate could alter the bill, White House legislative liaison Eric Ueland said it would be misquoting the president to say he wanted the Senate to change the bill, H.R. 6201.
Several Republicans, including Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, had criticized the paid sick leave provision in a statement Saturday and pushed for an alternative approach that would have states alter unemployment insurance programs to pay workers staying home because of the virus.
But Johnson and other Republicans said after the Mnuchin meeting they would give way and focus on the next set of the measures to respond to the outbreak.
“We don’t have time to fiddle around with the problem, as much as I would like to,” Johnson said.
Proposed technical changes to the measure held it up in the House for much of Monday. One Republican, Texas Representative Louie Gohmert, threatened to object to the changes, which would have prevented the House from tweaking the bill without calling members back to Washington to vote.
While the Senate is in session this week, House members left town Saturday, and the chamber can only pass measures in their absence if no one objects.
Gohmert said he didn’t have enough time to read the changes to the House bill. He relented late Monday, allowing the House to pass the technical fixes.
Cash Handouts
With the House bill now in the Senate’s hands, members of both parties are beginning to offer proposals for the next round of fiscal stimulus. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer proposed at least $750 billion to shore up hospital capacity, provide loan payment forbearance for federal loans, help families pay for childcare, provide food and medicine assistance for seniors, and put the Defense Department to work aiding the crisis response.
A surprising ideological coalition -- including conservative senators like Mitt Romney and Tom Cotton, along with House progressives like Ro Khanna and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez -- endorsed the idea of giving cash payments to all American households. Romney’s proposal would immediately send $1,000 checks to every adult American.
Even with these ideas for the next round of legislation, there was some concern about the exposure of some senators, many of them at higher risk for the virus because of their age. Several congressional aides have tested positive for COVID-19, and continuing to work on Capitol Hill goes against the government’s most recent limits on group sizes.
Senator Dick Durbin, a member of Democratic leadership, urged his Senate colleagues to act quickly so they, like the House, could recess for the rest of the week.
“We have members of the Senate going in and out of quarantine!” Durbin said Monday on the Senate floor. “We should do our work and do it quickly.”
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