Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin presented a new $916 billion COVID-19 relief proposal to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in the first move by the Trump administration since Election Day to break a months-long standoff, Bloomberg News reported. Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer called it progress, but said that it shouldn’t be used to obstruct the bipartisan negotiations already underway on a proposal from a group of Democratic and Republican lawmakers. The Mnuchin offer, which was made to Pelosi yesterday, was essentially a joint proposal from the White House, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.). Mnuchin said that he conferred with President Donald Trump, whose support will be needed to gather GOP votes. “This proposal includes money for state and local governments and robust liability protections for businesses, schools and universities,” Mnuchin said. Those issues have been the two key roadblocks in bipartisan talks on a $908 billion proposal put forth last week. “It’s a much better product” than the $908 billion option, McCarthy said. Pelosi and Schumer said in a joint statement that getting McConnell to go along with a $916 billion proposal was progress, but that the focal point should be the talks still going on in Congress on the bipartisan plan. They faulted the White House plan for leaving out enhanced unemployment benefits. Along with a widely supported renewal of aid for small businesses, the Mnuchin plan includes stimulus checks, something that members of both sides of the aisle have favored — including President-elect Joe Biden and Trump. There’s $600 per qualifying adult, with another $600 per child, according to McCarthy. Those checks would be in place of the $300 per week temporary supplementary unemployment benefits included in the bipartisan proposal. The proposal does extend two other expiring unemployment insurance programs — one for gig workers and the other for workers who have exhausted their 13 weeks of standard benefits.
