It has now been about seven months since Congress passed the CARES Act. Since the coronavirus pandemic continues to pose a problem for the United States, Americans have been wondering whether there’s another stimulus package on the way. Over the past few months, Democrats and Republicans have not agreed on a proposal, with one of the main points of contention being the total price point of the package. Even though they have not been able to come to an agreement yet, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin are reportedly set to speak about the possibility of a second stimulus package again.
As CNBC noted, Pelosi and Mnuchin did discuss the second stimulus on Wednesday. However, they were not able to reach an agreement. They will, once again, discuss the matter on Thursday, which is said to be one of the final pushes to strike a stimulus deal before the Nov. 3 election. Pelosi spokesperson Drew Hammill said in a tweet that the California Democrat and the Treasury Secretary had “productive” discussions about language in a new relief bill over the weekend. Although, he added that the “one major area of disagreement continues to be that the White House lacks an understanding of the need for a national strategic testing plan” for COVID-19.
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On Wednesday, Mnuchin said that he and Pelosi “had a comprehensive discussion on a lot of issues.” He continued to tell the Milken Institute Global Conference, “We continue to make progress on certain issues, but on certain issues we continue to be far apart.” This news about continuing stimulus negotiations comes after Pelosi and other Democrats rejected the White House’s recent stimulus offer, which the speaker called “grossly inadequate” and “wholly insufficient.” In a letter to her colleagues, she also took aim at Trump for not taking “the war against the virus seriously, personally, or nationally.”
“The news is filled with the numbers in terms of dollars,” Pelosi continued. “The heart of the matter is: can we allow the virus to rage on and ignore science as the Administration proposes, or will they accept the scientific strategic plan in the Heroes Act to crush the virus. We have other differences in terms of who benefits from the spending. But in terms of addressing testing, tracing and treatment, what the Trump Administration has offered is wholly insufficient.”
