Efforts to include a new round of checks in the coronavirus stimulus bill accelerated Tuesday, with the White House and some Democratic members of the House and Senate advocating for the direct payments.
The renewed effort came as a bipartisan group of senators and representatives moved closer to an agreement on a $908 billion stimulus package.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Tuesday proposed a slightly larger $916 billion measure, with direct payments $600 per person.
Earlier Tuesday, six Senate Democrats, three of whom ran for president in 2020, asked their colleagues to demand that the $908 billion stimulus legislation include checks of $1,200 for adults and $500 for children.
And 59 House Democrats, including New Jersey Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, also called for direct checks to individuals in the new stimulus bill.
Mnuchin’s proposal included state and local aid and protections against lawsuits for coronavirus-related illnesses and injuries. But he funded the direct payments by eliminating the proposed extra $300 a week unemployment insurance benefit, which was in the bipartisan measure.
Rep. Josh Gottheimer, who is helping to negotiate the bipartisan bill, said the tradeoff wasn’t worth it.
“The challenge with the proposal is it guts unemployment, which I believe is essential to those who are out of work,” said Gottheimer, D-5th Dist. “That is a loss for people, not a win. I can’t support zeroing out unemployment help for those who are out of work.”
A half dozen U.S. Senators — Bernie Sanders, of Vermont, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York , Elizabeth Warren and Edward Markey of Massachusetts, and Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden of Oregon — urged their colleagues in a letter to demand the $1,200 payments.
“Simply stated, given the horrific extent of the current crisis and the desperation that working families all over this country are experiencing, this proposal does not go anywhere near far enough,” the letter said.
Separately, Republican U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, a potential 2024 GOP presidential candidate. also called for another round of stimulus checks, and said he urged Trump to veto any bill without them.
“I’m gonna vote no on COVID relief that doesn’t have direct payments on it,” Hawley said, according to pool reports. “I continue to be flummoxed as to why there aren’t any direct payments in it. Everybody supported this in March. It’s the most useful, helpful, and frankly popular aspect.”
U.S. Sen. Cory Booker “has been pushing for direct cash assistance to be included in the package currently being negotiated,” spokesman Tom Pietrykoski said.
U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez declined comment when asked if he supported the demand for including $1,200 checks in the new stimulus legislation.
In their own letter to congressional leaders, the House Democrats said the direct stimulus checks have “already proved to be one of the most effective and most equitable ways to directly support the American people” and excluding them would “leave behind tens of millions of people who have lost income as well as many struggling individuals who cannot work and those left out of federal support programs.”
Watson Coleman, D-12th Dist., was the only New Jersey lawmaker who signed the letter.
“People are suffering, people have lost their jobs, people have housing insecurity, they have food insecurity and they have housing insecurity,” Watson Coleman said. “We have a responsibility to give them some relief.
“We can do big things for very wealthy corporations but we’re always quibbling over what to do for those with the greatest need. That’s disgusting.”
The six senators also opposed Senate Republican demands to protect businesses from liability if their workers or customers become infected with the coronavirus.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who called such liability protections non-negotiable, abruptly switched gears Tuesday and suggested that both that provision and a proposed $160 billion in aid to state, local and tribal governments be left out of the final package for now, since President-elect Joe Biden said he would ask Congress for more help next year.
“What I recommend is we set aside liability and set aside state and local and pass those things we can agree on knowing full well we’ll be back at this after the first of the year,” McConnell, R-Ky., said at a Capitol press conference Tuesday.
His proposal was rejected by lawmakers of both parties.
“Now is not the time to walk away from the key pillars of our bipartisan, bicameral COVID-19 emergency relief agreement,” said Gottheimer and Tom Reed, R-N.Y., co-chairs of the Problem Solvers Caucus. “It’s time to double down on finding a solution to the remaining obstacles. We are simply too close.”
Lawmakers said Tuesday they were almost there in terms of resolving the disputes over state and local aid, which centered around ensuring that the money was distributed to help governments deal with impact of the pandemic, and protections against coronavirus-related lawsuits for businesses, schools and other institutions, which focused on what standards would have to met to get liability protection.
Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com.
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