Pelosi Lays Down $3 Trillion Marker With Vote Today Defying GOP
Pelosi Lays Down Marker in Coronavirus Bill Vote Amid Doubts
(Bloomberg) -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is pushing ahead with a vote Friday on a $3 trillion Democratic-only virus relief bill despite the misgivings of some liberals and moderates in her party and the fact it has no chance of ever getting signed into law.
Lawmakers began consideration of the stimulus package and a measure to allow proxy voting under restrictions that have now become common place during the coronavirus pandemic: face covers and limits on the number of members on the floor at any one time.
The circumstances didn’t diminish the partisan rancor surrounding the House bill.
Rules Committee Chairman Jim McGovern of Massachusetts lashed out at Republicans for describing the legislation as a Democratic “messaging exercise.”
“I don’t give a damn about sending a message, Madame Speaker,” McGovern. “I want to send help to those in desperate need.”
Representative Tom Cole of Oklahoma, the top Republican on the Rules panel, replied that the bill “is nothing more than a Democratic policy agenda masquerading as a response to the coronavirus crisis.”
Pelosi is counting on key parts of the legislation -- aid to states, more payments to individuals and extending unemployment insurance -- to generate enough public support that the White House and the GOP will be forced into negotiations on another round of stimulus for a hobbled U.S. economy.
“I am optimistic that the American people will weigh in and make their views known,” the speaker said on Thursday, deflecting questions about pressing ahead with a partisan vote without any active negotiations with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell or President Donald Trump’s administration.
But Trump, who has said he’s in no rush for another stimulus package, said Friday he has the upper hand.
“We have all the cards because we have the cards of the American people. I know what they want,” he said at the White House. “Phase four is going to happen but it’s going to happen in a much better way for the American people.”
McConnell said he’s spoken with Trump and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin about the next phase of stimulus but they’ve set no date for getting it done. He dismissed the House Democratic legislation, known as the Heroes Act, as “a $3 trillion left-wing wish list.”
The White House said Trump would veto it if it ever got to his desk.
The toll of the coronavirus pandemic continues to mount even as some states begin rolling back lockdown orders, allowing businesses to slowly reopen. More than 1.4 million people have been infected and more than 85,000 have died. And since businesses began shutting down in mid-March 36.5 million people have applied for unemployment insurance.
Adding to pressure on lawmakers and the White House is the prospect of an autumn election campaign with the economic hardship continuing.
In a speech on Wednesday, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell warned that the U.S. economy faces unprecedented risk if additional fiscal support doesn’t come through. Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari said direct cash payments are needed.
“Putting money directly in the hands of laid-off Americans is, I think, the most direct way to get assistance, and then they will spend the money where they need it,” Kashkari said Thursday during a virtual event with CBS.
But McConnell and other Republicans defend their reluctance to swiftly pass another round of pandemic relief by saying that Powell hasn’t explicitly said how quickly lawmakers should act.
Pelosi is positioning the Democrats to lay down the first marker in the negotiations, even if her party isn’t in complete agreement. On one side is the moderate wing expressing skepticism about acting on a partisan bill with no chance of being enacted. On the other are progressives who complain the bill isn’t generous enough. Still, Democratic leaders expressed confidence they have the votes to pass it.
Some of the Democrats who were elected in 2018 from swing districts have shied away from some of the bill’s provisions that were designed to appeal to the progressive wing and don’t directly apply to the dislocation caused by the pandemic. They also have urged their leaders to engage with Republicans.
Republicans are targeting some of those Democrats for defeat in November by painting them as supporters of a “socialist wish list.”
One of the most vulnerable Democrats, Oklahoma’s Kendra Horn, announced Thursday that she would be voting against the measure.
“Messaging bills without bipartisan support are a disservice to the American people, especially during a time of crisis. This is not the time for partisan gamesmanship, this is the time to find common ground and deliver help where it is needed most,” she said in a press release.
Virginia’s Abigail Spanberger followed suit, saying members of her party “have decided to use this package as an opportunity to make political statements and propose a bill that goes far beyond pandemic relief and has no chance at becoming law.”
South Carolina’s Joe Cunningham, Utah’s Ben McAdams and Iowa’s Cindy Axne, all first-term Democrats, also announced they would vote against the measure, saying both parties should negotiate.
An aide associated with the moderate wing of the party estimated that five to seven swing-district Democrats would vote against the bill, mostly because of the provisions that allow stimulus checks to go to undocumented immigrants. Others are angry about the rush to draw up the legislation, skipping over committees.
The Congressional Progressive Caucus, meanwhile, had pushed Pelosi to delay the vote. Some big-ticket items the group wanted didn’t make it into the legislation.
‘Falls Short’
One proposal would have made regular stimulus payments until the recession ends, rather than just one more round as included in the Heroes Act. Another proposal by CPC leader Pramila Jayapal of Washington state would have paid employers to rehire furloughed workers and covered 100% of their salaries directly up to $100,000 per year. Pelosi said that those provisions were too costly.
Jayapal said Friday she would vote against the bill because it didn’t include the paycheck guarantee. The legislation “ultimately fails to match the scale of this crisis,” she said in a statement.
The speaker will be able to claim a small measure of bipartisanship. Republican Representative Peter King of New York said he plans to vote for the bill, in part because it would repeal limits on state and local tax deductions, which have hit residents of his state.
King, who represents a district on Long Island, isn’t running for re-election this fall.
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