WASHINGTON — Congress hit a new stumbling block in negotiating a coronavirus aid deal, the latest in a final turbulent stretch to end the year as party leaders race against a Friday midnight deadline.
Congressional leaders had settled on a $900 billion framework mid-week that is expected to include a $300 federal unemployment bonus, a new round of direct payments, small business funding and money to distribute Covid-19 vaccines.
Negotiators already dropped two contentious provisions that were holding up an agreement — liability protections for employers and funding for state and local governments.
But leaders had hit a new roadblock as Democrats on Friday accused Republicans, led by Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., of seeking to hamstring the incoming Biden administration by cutting off Federal Reserve emergency lending facilities created by the CARES Act to protect the fragile economy.
Democrats want to extend that authority into the new year, describing it as an important tool to respond to an economic crisis.
A senior Democratic aide said “an agreement was in sight to deliver aid to the American people until Sen. Toomey and Republicans inserted an 11th hour purely political, unrelated provision to tie Biden’s hands and risk throwing the economy into a tailspin.”
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Toomey called the issue his “top priority” in a phone call with reporters, arguing that the Fed lending programs were designed to be “temporary” and “cease operations no later than the end of 2020.”
“We were in a very, very dangerous moment with respect to financial markets that were not functioning. And so these programs were stood up to revive these private markets and they were remarkably successful in that purpose,” he said, describing his stance as “a Republican Senate consensus position.”
Still, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., expressed optimism Friday.
“I am even more optimistic now than I was last night that a bipartisan, bicameral framework for a major rescue package is close at hand,” McConnell said. “Like I’ve said, the Senate will be right here until an agreement is passed, whenever that may be.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and McConnell each said this week they planned to combine a Covid relief package with a must-pass $1.4 trillion funding bill that appropriators have negotiated in recent weeks.
But with the deadline hours away, that remains uncertain.
Party leaders have considered pushing through a stopgap measure to a buy a few extra days, but that could be blocked if some lawmakers object.
Congress could fund the government and pass coronavirus relief separately, but some sorry that could remove one incentive to quickly approve an aid package.
Or they could allow a shutdown on Friday at midnight to pile on the pressure to complete the task before lawmakers go home for the holidays.
Senate Majority Whip John Thune, R-S.D., said Thursday negotiators were still working to tie up “loose ends” as they craft the legislation.
“It’s taken longer than I think everybody had hoped, but still hoping it’ll get there,” he told reporters.
Leigh Ann Caldwell contributed.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
