WASHINGTON, D.C. (NEXSTAR) — Republicans in the House and Senate are ironing out details of their COVID stimulus package.
As we learn about what’s in it — Democrats are concerned with what’s left out of it.
The latest Republican version of a COVID stimulus package is beginning to take shape.
“The president’s priority for the moment is to get money into Americans quickly,” Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said.
Mnuchin said that means another round of direct payments to households– $105 billion for schools and $25 billion for testing, while also reducing the extra $600 per week unemployment benefit.
“We’re very clear on, we’re not going to pay people more to stay home than to work,” Mcnuchin said.
“I want to make sure the money we spend is money that’s needed,” Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said.
House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy acknowledges disagreement within the party about the bill’s cost is causing the delay.
“They’re important bills, there’s new data coming in every day,” Rep. McCarthy said. “There’s nothing wrong with taking a few more moments to make sure you get it right.”
But Democrat Senate Leader Chuck Schumer said waiting will cost lives.
“The Republican legislative response to COVID is un-unified, unserious, and unsatisfactory,” Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said.
And Democrat leaders say what’s more telling about the republican stimulus package is what’s not in their plan.
“Nothing for state and local, nothing for food stamps feeding the hungry, nothing for helping with rent and the rest of that,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said.
Speaker Pelosi says what Republicans have suggested so far is unacceptable.
“We have to be thinking about what’s going on at the kitchen table of America’s families,” Speaker Pelosi said.
Neither side expects a deal before unemployment benefits run out this month.