A bipartisan group of senators is holding discussions to try to get a deal on a fifth round of coronavirus relief amid a months-long stalemate between congressional leadership and the White House, The Hill reported. The talks are one of the first signs of life for a potential coronavirus agreement as congressional Democrats, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and the White House have remained far apart on both the price tag and the policy details. The group includes Republican Sens. Mitt Romney (Utah), Rob Portman (Ohio) and Susan Collins (Maine) as well as Democratic Sens. Chris Coons (Del.), Joe Manchin (W.Va.), Mark Warner (Va.), Michael Bennet (Colo.) and Dick Durbin (Ill.), the No. 2 Senate Democrat. Senators involved in the talks are eyeing an eventual government funding deal as a vehicle for coronavirus relief. Congress has to fund the government — either with a full-year omnibus or with a short-term continuing resolution — by Dec. 11. Any effort to revive the chances of another coronavirus deal faces an uphill path, even as cases climb across the country and some cities and states reinstate restrictions to try to curb the spread of the disease heading into what health experts expect to be a brutal winter season. McConnell has stood firm at pushing for a roughly $500 billion spending package similar to what has been blocked twice in the Senate. Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) say $2.2 trillion is the starting line for any negotiations. Read more.
In related news, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said that the central bank’s actions to backstop a range of credit markets after the coronavirus convulsed Wall Street this past spring had unlocked almost $2 trillion to support businesses, cities and states, the Wall Street Journal reported. In testimony prepared for delivery at a congressional hearing today, Powell said that the Fed’s unprecedented steps to stabilize financial markets had largely succeeded in restoring the flow of credit from private lenders. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Nov. 19 told Powell that he would not grant extensions for five lending programs that have backstopped markets for corporate and municipal debt and to purchase loans made to small businesses and nonprofits when those programs expire on Dec. 31. Powell didn’t elaborate in his testimony, released yesterday, about the central bank’s disagreement with Mnuchin’s decision. The Fed had earlier said that it would have preferred the lending programs had stayed open because the pandemic emergency hasn’t receded. Mnuchin is slated to testify alongside Powell at today’s hearing and didn’t address the conflict in his prepared testimony. Read more. (Subscription required.)
Click here to access a live web stream of the Senate Banking Committee's hearing "The Quarterly CARES Act Report to Congress" scheduled for 10 a.m. EDT today.
