Congress is barreling toward a rare weekend session as lawmakers race to wrap up a sweeping agreement to fund the government and provide badly needed coronavirus relief, The Hill reported. Leadership is homing in on a deal that would attach roughly $900 billion in coronavirus relief to a $1.4 trillion bill to fund the government until Oct. 1, 2021, in what is the last major piece of legislation Congress needs to pass before it wraps up its work for the year. But lawmakers appear poised to drive over Friday night’s funding cliff, when the government will shut down at least temporarily without new legislation. Even if talks wrap by Friday night, it’s expected to take days for Congress to pass it. “There’s still just a lot of loose ends we’re trying to tie down.... It’s a little bit of whack-a-mole, whack it here and something else pops up. There’s a lot of interaction between the moving parts of all this,” said Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.). Congress had been expected to depart for the year Friday, as lawmakers itch to get out of town for the holidays. But leadership is warning rank-and-file members to expect to be marooned in Washington through at least the weekend as talks drag on. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) warned senators to stay in town to vote on nominations, saying the chamber would be “productive.” Read more.
A new potential roadblock to a $900 billion coronavirus economic relief bill emerged in the U.S. Congress yesterday as some Senate Republicans insisted on language ensuring that expiring Federal Reserve lending programs cannot be revived, Reuters reported. Both parties were scrambling yesterday to strike a deal on a new compromise aid package. They have set aside Democratic demands for a new funding stream for state and local governments and Republican demands that companies be shielded from coronavirus-related lawsuits. But Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) wants to ensure that the Fed and Treasury are stripped of the authority to restore pandemic lending facilities that Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin will allow to expire on Dec. 31, including the Main Street program for mid-size businesses and facilities for municipal bond issuers and corporate credit and asset-backed securities. Read more.
In related news, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said that he will go to the floor today to ask for a vote on his proposal to provide a second round of $1,200 stimulus checks, The Hill reported. “Tomorrow I will go to the Senate floor to ask for an up or down vote on my bill to provide a direct payment of $1200 to working Americans, $2400 for couples, $500 for kids,” Hawley said in a tweet. He’s also teamed up with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to try to get it passed by the end of the year as part of a sweeping agreement, which is still being negotiated, to fund the government and provide long-stalled coronavirus relief. Under the Senate rules any one senator can ask for a vote, but any one senator can object. Read more.
