Bipartisan talks on a nearly trillion-dollar pandemic relief bill in Congress are hung up on differences between Republicans and Democrats on shielding companies from virus-related lawsuits, raising doubts about a deal and risking dragging negotiations past next week.
While Republicans and Democrats are closer than ever to agreeing on a price tag for a stimulus measure -- coalescing around a $900 billion figure -- there’s no sign they can get a deal anytime soon.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is urging lawmakers to drop aid for state and local governments and liability protections, and to proceed with a smaller bill without either. That pitch continues to be rejected by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other top Democrats who are open to a pause in liability lawsuits in exchange for the $160 billion in state aid floated by a bipartisan group of negotiators.
A group of Republican and Democratic senators trying to forge a compromise was able to agree to a formula for distributing state and local aid on Thursday, but talks have bogged down on liability.
“It’s pretty difficult,” Senator Mitt Romney, a Utah Republican and member of the group, said Thursday evening. “We’ve got a week left to be able to resolve all the issues,” and it’s a “very broad area,” he said.
U.S. equity futures sank on the news that the negotiations have faltered.
Republican Preferences
The continued struggles spurred renewed calls by Senate Republican leaders to move on from the group’s efforts and pass a small bill without either state aid or lawsuit protections.
Senator John Thune of South Dakota, the chamber’s No. 2 Republican, said the group of Republican and Democratic senators likely cannot produce a solution to limiting liability of employers in connection with Covid-19 infections that would satisfy Republicans. Democrats probably won’t like it, either, he added.
“My sense is that they’re not going to get there on the liability language,” he said at the Capitol. “They’re just not going to be able to thread the needle.”
At the same time, the Senate has yet to pass a one-week stopgap spending bill needed to keep the federal government running beyond Friday night, when current funding runs out. Lawmakers plan to attach any Covid-19 relief deal to a comprehensive spending bill they’re working on separately to provide appropriations from Dec. 18 into 2021.
Shutdown Threat
One reason for the holdup on the stopgap bill is an attempt by progressive Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and conservative Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri to attach provisions granting most Americans $1,200 stimulus checks.