Second Stimulus Negotiation: People Blindsided After Senate Leaves Washington Until September With No Deal

By Daniel S. Levine

The U.S. Senate has left Washington, D.C. without reaching a deal on the next coronavirus stimulus package, meaning Americans will have to wait even longer for a second stimulus check. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell kept the Senate in session for an extra week, hoping that President Donald Trump's administration and Congressional Democrats would come closer to an agreement. The decision to leave with no package in place left Americans shocked and disappointed on social media.

Senators believed there was no reason to continue holding sessions while the administration and Democratic leaders were at a stalemate. The House also left Washington and is not expected to come back until Sept. 14. The Senate will not reconvene until Sept. 8, but senators will get a 24-hour warning to come back to the capitol if House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer reached a deal with White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. "If the Speaker of the House and the minority leader of the Senate decide to finally let another package move forward … it would take bipartisan consent to meet for legislative business sooner than scheduled," McConnell said Thursday, reports The Hill.

House Democrats passed the HEROES Act back in May, but Senate Republicans rejected that bill. McConnell did not release a counter-proposal until late July, when he introduced the HEALS Act, which costs $1 trillion, about a third less than the HEROES Act's price tag. Democrats offered to lower their price by $1 trillion, but the White House still rejected the offer, Pelosi said.

On Thursday, Pelosi told reporters she would not meet with Republicans again until they propose a $2 trillion package. "When they’re ready to do that, we’ll sit down. We’re not inching away from their meager piecemeal proposal," she said, reports Politico. She presented a chart comparing the Democratic and Republican plans, which showed Republicans planned to spend little to "nothing" on food assistance, coronavirus testing, and rental assistance. “The press says, ‘Wy can’t you come to an agreement?’ Because we are miles apart in our values," Pelosi added.

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McConnell accused Pelosi and Democrats of "barely even pretending to negotiate," adding, "The Speaker's latest spin is that it is some heroic sacrifice to lower her demand from a made-up $3.5 trillion marker that was never going to become law to an equally made up $2.5 trillion marker." He said this was not negotiating, but "throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks." Still, McConnell hoped there would be a "bipartisan agreement" in the "coming weeks."

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