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Nancy Pelosi set a Tuesday deadline for more progress with the White House on a fiscal stimulus deal before the Nov. 3 election, while President Donald Trump renewed his offer to go beyond the dollar amounts now on the table, Bloomberg News reported. While Pelosi said that a pre-election deal remains possible, her team sent conflicting signals after setting a 48-hour deadline for progress on Saturday night. Her spokesman, Drew Hammill, later said the timing of the deadline means by the end of Tuesday, not Monday. At issue is wording “on the design on some of these things” that remain unresolved in the bill, Pelosi said on ABC’s “This Week.” “Are we going with it, or not? And what is the language?” she said. “The 48 only relates to if we want to get it done before the election, which we do.” Trump weighed in after drawing a rebuff by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell last week for saying he’s prepared to go higher then the $1.8 trillion his team had been trying to offer Pelosi. She favors a $2.2 trillion plan. The president told reporters in Reno, Nevada, on Sunday, “I want at a bigger number” than Pelosi. “That doesn’t mean all the Republicans agree with me but I think they will in the end.” On Saturday, calling in to a Wisconsin TV station, Trump said he could exceed the amounts floated so far and voiced confidence that he “could quickly convince” Republicans wary of another large spending package to back a “good” deal. 

As Congress continues to remain deadlocked over a new round of stimulus, studies show that the picture for many small businesses remains bleak, the Washington Business Journal reported. A National Federation of Independent Business survey showed 22 percent of PPP borrowers anticipate layoffs in the next six months, nearly half anticipate needing additional financial support in that time, and 44 percent of owners would apply for a PPP loan for the first or second time if Congress extended the program. New data from Yelp shows that 163,735 businesses on its platform have closed since the pandemic began, of which at least 60 percent are permanent. Bankruptcy reorganizations in September were higher than any September since 2011, according to the American Bankruptcy Institute. The already desperate situation for small businesses is magnified for owners of color, said Sarah Crozier, senior communications manager at small-business group Main Street Alliance. She said that 46 percent of Black, Latinx and Asian American business owners say they can only stay open for fewer than six months, per data from a study commissioned by the national small-business network. Overall, the study found, 75 percent of small-business respondents are finding it difficult to negotiate favorable deals with their landlords, while 70 percent say the same thing about their banks.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) yesterday rejected a coronavirus relief deal that costs more than $1.8 trillion, hours after President Trump indicated he was "absolutely" willing to raise his spending offer, FoxBusinessNews.com reported. Asked whether there can be a compromise between the White House-backed $1.8 trillion proposal and a $2.2 trillion offer put forward by House Democrats earlier this month, McConnell pushed back. “I don’t think so," he said. "That’s where the administration's willing to go. My members think what we laid out, a half a trillion dollars, highly targeted, is the best way to go." "What I’m going to put in the floor is what Senate Republicans, 52 out 53 of us, feel like it’s an appropriate response," he said. "You are correct there were discussions going on between the secretary of the Treasury and the speaker about the higher amount. That’s not what I’m gonna put on the floor.” McConnell's comments came shortly after Trump told FOX Business he was considering upping his offer for a coronavirus relief package above the White House's current $1.8 trillion proposal.

The chances of Congress passing a pre-election stimulus are all but gone, as Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin yesterday blamed politics for undermining the months-long negotiations, Bloomberg News reported. “At this point getting something done before the election and executing on that would be difficult, just given where we are in the level of details,” Mnuchin said. With a deal out of reach, the two sides in the talks faulted each other for the breakdown. The Treasury chief, who is scheduled to be in the Middle East next week, made his remarks after another in a long series of calls with Pelosi that have failed to seal a deal. While Mnuchin said he hoped for bipartisan support for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s latest idea -- a vote on a narrow bill next week to help small businesses -- Democratic leaders have no appetite for piecemeal measures now. The inability to bring months of negotiations to conclusion has sparked increasing tensions, with each camp seeing internal strains rise as it becomes clear there won’t be a spending bill to take to the public.

The White House again pivoted its approach to stimulus negotiations on Sunday, with the president’s aides pushing for immediate action on a narrow measure after the administration’s $1.8 trillion proposal was rebuffed by members of both parties, the Washington Post reported. In a letter to Congress sent Sunday, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin asked lawmakers to first pass legislation allowing the Trump administration to redirect about $130 billion in unused funding from the Paycheck Protection Program intended for small businesses while negotiations continue on a broader relief effort. The administration’s latest request is unlikely to advance in the House, where Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has rejected stand-alone legislation in favor of a comprehensive package to address the economic and health consequences of the coronavirus pandemic. The administration’s $1.8 trillion stimulus proposal on Friday came under heavy criticism from lawmakers in both parties over the weekend, making its chances of passing appear remote. White House officials will request that Congress approve legislation allowing firms demonstrating a decline in revenue to apply for a second round of PPP funding, which they are not allowed to do under existing law, according to one person familiar with the plans who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the administration’s internal planning.

An oversight panel responsible for monitoring $500 billion in federal aid has become stymied by disagreements about a program to prop up struggling state and local governments and has failed to send a legally mandated report to Congress for weeks, the New York Times reported. The standoff over the Municipal Lending Facility, which is operated by the Federal Reserve and supported by the Treasury Department, comes as talks between Congress and the Trump administration over additional stimulus have stalled. Those talks have run aground largely because lawmakers disagree about whether the federal government ought to provide more money to states and municipalities, with Democrats arguing for it and Republicans against it. The $2.2 trillion stimulus law passed in March created a Congressional Oversight Commission, which includes two Republicans and two Democrats, to keep tabs on some of that spending. By law, it must issue a report to Congress each month. While the passage of the stimulus legislation was overwhelmingly bipartisan, the oversight commission’s work has become politically charged. A Democrat on the commission recently accused his Republican colleagues of stonewalling its work. The dispute centers on whether the Fed’s lending program could be doing more to help lower borrowing costs for states, cities and other local governments. “The commission has a legal obligation to issue monthly reports,” said Bharat Ramamurti, the Democratic commissioner and a former aide to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). The Fed announced in early April that it would set up a program to buy municipal debt using its emergency lending powers, and the Treasury Department agreed to insure the program against defaults. The central bank hired Kent Hiteshew, an expert on municipal debt, to help devise the program, which is run on a day-to-day basis by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The program was set up as a last-ditch option for local governments that could not borrow money as they usually do by selling bonds. While it has been expanded several times to make more borrowers eligible, the program offers loans at relatively high interest rates, making it an expensive option for all but the hardest-hit states and localities. So far, only Illinois and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which operates New York City’s subway system, have used it, borrowing a total of $1.65 billion.

Democratic and White House negotiators resumed discussions over a sweeping coronavirus relief deal Thursday, but gave no indication they were closer to a breakthrough in resolving deep-seated disputes that led President Trump to end the negotiations earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal reported. Few on Capitol Hill were optimistic that Congress and the White House would reach an agreement before the Nov. 3 election. Still, negotiations that had been frozen showed signs of life after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) yesterday ruled out moving forward with special support for the battered airline industry without a broader agreement. In a call yesterday afternoon, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin made clear that Trump was interested in reaching an agreement on a broader bill, according to Pelosi’s spokesman, Drew Hammill, and an administration official. The White House has gone back and forth on how broad a deal to pursue. After ruling out more talks on Tuesday afternoon, Trump said Tuesday evening and reiterated in recent days that he would support individual relief bills, including aid for airlines and another round of direct checks. The two sides have been at odds over how much money to spend, as well as how to allocate it. Democrats last week passed a $2.2 trillion bill, down from a $3.5 trillion bill passed in May, while Mnuchin had last week proposed a $1.6 trillion offer. White House spokeswoman Alyssa Farah said yesterday that Trump was interested in legislation that included checks, as well as assistance for small businesses and airlines, but not a larger package. Later, she said the White House was “open to going with something bigger” but not the $2.2 trillion package Democrats proposed. Trump had faced pushback from Republicans who said it was a mistake to abandon efforts to mitigate the health and economic blows of the pandemic, especially on the eve of an election where control of both the White House and Senate are at stake. Pelosi, too, has been under pressure from Democratic lawmakers to remain at the negotiating table, amid signs the labor market recovery is stalling.

U.S. airlines were again holding out hope for another $25 billion in payroll aid after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin yesterday discussed the possibility of standalone legislation for the struggling sector, Reuters reported. Their conversation was the latest in a series of turbulent developments on relief prospects in recent weeks for airlines, which last week began the furlough of tens of thousands of employees. Airline shares jumped on Wednesday after sinking abruptly a day earlier on remarks by President Donald Trump that his administration would abandon talks with congressional Democrats over a major stimulus package until after the Nov. 3 election. Airlines’ relief request enjoys wide bipartisan backing, but House of Representatives Transportation Committee Chairman Peter DeFazio failed last week to win approval of a standalone bipartisan measure for airlines by unanimous consent after some Republicans objected. Pelosi asked Mnuchin by phone on Wednesday to review DeFazio’s bill “so that they could have an informed conversation,” her spokesman, Drew Hammill, wrote on Twitter. They spoke again yesterday evening for 20 minutes and agreed to continue discussions today, Hammill said. A separate Republican-led attempt to pass standalone legislation in the Senate also failed after opposition from three Republican senators, including Rick Scott of Florida. The Republican bill proposes taking unspent money from a first COVID-19 relief package, while the House Democrats’ proposal does not include any cuts to existing spending to fund the program.