Pelosi, Mnuchin to Talk Stimulus Thursday With Senate Skeptical

(Bloomberg) -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin made further progress on a coronavirus stimulus package Wednesday, according to Pelosi’s office, but Senate Republicans continued to raise objections.

“Today’s conversation brings us closer to being able to put pen to paper to write legislation,” Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill tweeted after the two negotiators held a 48-minute call Wednesday. “With the exchange of legislative language, we are better prepared to reach compromise on several priorities.”

The two negotiators will talk again Thursday, Hammill said. With the timeframe becoming ever more compressed, both sides on Wednesday floated the potential for final votes after Election Day. White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said the economy and markets would still benefit from the announcement of a deal between the administration and the House in the next two weeks.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has made no specific promise on the timing for a vote on any compromise endorsed by President Donald Trump and passed in the House. GOP members Wednesday raised concerns about both the size of the deal under negotiation -- $1.9 trillion, according to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows -- and policy issues in the language.

“The president’s willing to lean into this” with Republican senators if a deal is reached, Meadows said in a Fox News interview Wednesday afternoon.

It’s still not clear whether a deal can be reached. Meadows complained that it’s the administration that’s “advancing this negotiation further and further to Nancy Pelosi’s side of the ledger.” The speaker has made only “small” concessions, he said.

“Differences continue to be narrowed on health priorities, including language providing a national strategic testing and contract tracing plan, but more work needs to be done to ensure that schools are the safest places in America for children to learn,” Pelosi’s spokesman, Hammill said.

Trump continued to criticize Democrats for seeking large-scale assistance for state and local authorities, tweeting that “their primary focus is BAILING OUT poorly run (and high crime) Democrat cities and states.”

Even so, Pelosi expressed optimism before her Wednesday afternoon call with Mnuchin.

“There will be a bill. The question is: is it in time to pay the November rent -- my goal -- or will it be shortly after,” Pelosi said on MSNBC. “I want people to know that help is on its way. It will be bigger. It will be better. And it will be retroactive.”

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Senate Republicans continued to raise doubts about whether stimulus would be any easier after Nov. 3. Missouri Republican Roy Blunt, a member of McConnell’s leadership team, said, “If we’re going to do it this year, I think it’s now or never.”

Republican Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa told reporters, “It’s pretty hard to predict because I think that what happens in the presidential election will determine that more than anything we know right now.”

After meeting with GOP senators, Meadows said that “I don’t think our chances get better after election.”

Republican vote counters in the Senate won’t have the 13 votes needed to pass a stimulus package as large as Pelosi is seeking, according to John Thune, the party’s No. 2 leader in the Senate.

Senator John Cornyn of Texas said it’s not just the top-line number that has some caucus members wary. “Part of the message from Senate Republicans is: we need to have a discussion about the substance” of policy measures, he said. Republican senators’ concerns include lack of language to prevent government funding for abortions.

Meadows said on Fox Business that the “biggest issue remains state and local assistance.” While the administration estimates that those authorities have lost $250 billion to $275 billion in revenue thanks to the coronavirus crisis, Pelosi is seeking aid of “about twice that number,” or closer to $500 billion, he said.

Meadows suggested a compromise could be found, however. “If we can add additional moneys in terms of transportation and onshoring I think there’s a deal to be made,” he said, referring to the White House’s desire for incentives to bring manufacturing back to the U.S.

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