A telephone call on coronavirus economic relief between U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and an adviser to President Donald Trump ended yesterday with no breakthrough, and Pelosi said that talks would not resume until the Trump administration agreed to $2.2 trillion in aid, Reuters reported. Pelosi and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows spoke by phone for about 25 minutes, the first chance in weeks to resume stalled COVID-19 aid negotiations. But the two sides soon appeared to be as far apart as ever. Meadows and Pelosi are two of the four negotiators who were involved in talks on legislation to help Americans and businesses suffering from a coronavirus pandemic that has now killed nearly 180,000 people. The others are Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer. The talks broke down on Aug. 7, with the sides far apart on major issues including the size of unemployment benefits for tens of millions of people made jobless by the pandemic, aid for state and local governments and funding for schools and food support programs. The Democratic-controlled House of Representatives in May passed a $3.4 trillion coronavirus relief bill, but Pelosi offered to reduce that sum by $1 trillion. The White House, which had proposed $1 trillion in aid, rejected the offer. Democrats have since demanded that the White House agree to “meet in the middle.”
