Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) spoke yesterday amid growing momentum for a targeted coronavirus relief deal, the Washington Post reported. They also discussed reaching a deal on a spending bill to avert a government shutdown on Dec. 11. Their talks — the first since the Nov. 3 election — came shortly after a growing number of lawmakers have rallied behind a $908 billion bipartisan spending bill that would aim to buttress parts of the economy over the next several months. While some of these lawmakers stopped short of endorsing every part of the proposal, many said the offer was solid enough that it should be used as the basis for negotiations, a sentiment that Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) expressed Wednesday. Sens. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), John Cornyn (R-Tex.) and Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) signaled their openness to the package, which had been unveiled by a group of moderate Republican and Democratic senators on Tuesday. The measure is more than what Senate Republicans had originally offered and less than what House Democrats had wanted, but it is designed to try to provide immediate relief to some parts of the economy as the pandemic enters a dangerous and increasingly deadly phase. Graham said he’s “never been more hopeful that we’ll get a bill … the $908 billion bill, that’s the one I support.” He said he had talked to President Trump about the measure “extensively.”
