Months after she and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin began negotiations on the next stimulus relief bill, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has indicated that an agreement is one step closer to being reached. Although hope of a bill to be approved by Election Day has all but faded, Pelosi has indicated that a stimulus relief deal could be reached as soon as this week, bringing Americans one step closer to receiving the aid they so desperately need.
Providing an update on the ongoing talks while speaking with Jake Tapper on CNN’s State of the Union Sunday, the house speaker revealed that a deal is so close to being struck that it could be passed in the House of Representatives as soon as this week. She said that she will not stall in reaching a deal to see whether Democrats win the White House and the Senate and keep the House after in the Nov. 3 elections, but will instead continue to pursue a bill with Mnuchin to get it approved “as soon as possible.”
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“We want to do it as soon as possible,” she said. “So, again, it could happen this week in the House, but that’s up to Mitch [McConnell] as to whether it would happen in the Senate and go to the President’s desk which is our hope and prayer.”
McConnell, the Senate majority leader, has seemed to be an obstacle in the negotiations, and reportedly even warned the White House against making a deal before Election Day. His stance, however, seems to have softened the slightest, and he has indicated that he would bring the agreed-upon bill to the Senate floor for a vote. However, he has not indicated when that vote would be held, meaning that he could delay it until after the Nov. 3 election.
But before it even reaches McConnell’s desk, the bill has to be agreed upon and written first. Pelosi and Mnuchin have disagreed on several things throughout negotiations, though in recent days, those gaps have begun to narrow. Pelosi said that on Friday, she sent Mnuchin a list of concerns “that we still had about ‘what is the answer?’” Mnuchin, according to the house speaker, was set to review the list over the weekend, “and we will have some answers on Monday.”
Exact details of the bill currently being negotiated remain unclear, though it is believed to have a price tag in the ballpark of $1.8 to $2.2 trillion. The bill will include provisions targeting coronavirus testing and contact tracing and funding for schools, among other things. It will also likely include a second round of stimulus checks.
