WASHINGTON — After days of rancorous negotiations, Republican and Democratic senators have reached a deal on a roughly $2 trillion stimulus package to ease the damaging economic effects of the coronavirus outbreak.
About 1:30 a.m. EDT Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced the agreement in a speech on the Senate floor along with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.
“At last, we have a deal,” McConnell said. “After days of intense discussions, the Senate has reached a bipartisan agreement on a historic relief package for this pandemic.”
The final language is still being crafted but the package includes:
- one-time payments of $1,200 per adult and $500 per child
- $367 billion for small businesses
- $500 billion for loans to larger industries
- $100 billion for hospitals and health system
- $600 more per week in unemployment benefits for those out of work.
McConnell said it was a “war-time level of investment” that would “rush new resources onto the front lines of our nation’s health care fight” and “inject trillions of dollars of cash into the economy as fast as possible.”
“We’re going to pass this legislation later today,” he vowed.
“After sleep-deprived nights and marathon negotiating sessions, we have a bipartisan agreement on the largest rescue package in American history,” Schumer said. “This is not a moment of celebration but one of necessity. The anguish of the American people – wondering about the future of their health, the health of their loved ones and the economy – necessitates us to do all we can to help them and help our country.”
Schumer said while “like all compromises, this bill is far from perfect” it was a significant improvement over the previous version and urged his fellow Democrats to vote for it.
For days, both sides had agreed on the basics of the package: direct payments to Americans, help for small business, a lifeline to large industries, such as airlines, considered vital to the nation’s swift recovery from a shutdown that had paralyzed the world’s largest economy and upended the country’s daily routines.
But a quick compromise proved elusive.
Democrats pressed for more worker protections, money for states fighting the virus and guarantees that corporations couldn’t use bailout money for stock buybacks and executive bonuses. Republicans, in turn, accused Democrats of obstruction for delaying a desperately-needed lifeline for the American economy in order to push what McConnell derided as a “left-wing episode of ‘Supermarket Sweep.'”
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Floor votes simply to advance the bill to the Senate floor for a final vote died on two separate occasions. Tempers flared. Patience was short. Both sides accused the other of negotiating in bad faith while the crisis worsened, the number of infection cases climbed, and the stock market continued to tumble.
In addition, the already difficult negotiations were complicated as a handful of senators – all Republicans – couldn’t vote because they had to self-quarantine over exposure to the very virus they were trying to combat.
If the bill passes the full Senate, it will go to the House.
– Ledyard King, Nicholas Wu and William Cummings
Trump attacks Romney after Utah senator tests negative for coronavirus
President Donald Trump greeted reports that Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, tested negative for coronavirus by saying “great news!” – though he then proceeded to trash his political rival in a tweet.
“I am so happy I can barely speak,” Trump tweeted. “He may have been a terrible presidential candidate and an even worse U.S. Senator, but he is a RINO, and I like him a lot!”
RINO is slang for “Republican In Name Only.”
Romney, the Republican presidential nominee in 2012, was the only Republican lawmaker to vote in favor of an impeachment charge against Trump. Romney has also been frequently critical of the president.
After Romney announced he would go into seclusion amid coronavoirus fears, Trump told reporters Sunday: “Romney is in isolation? Gee, that’s too bad.”
– David Jackson
Package blocks Trump, other officials’ businesses from receiving stimulus money
The Senate Democratic leader says the proposed $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus bill would prohibit money from going to businesses controlled by President Donald Trump.
Business interests controlled by Vice President Mike Pence, members of Congress, and heads of executive departments are also prohibited “from receiving loans or investments from Treasury programs,” said a statement from the office of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
Democrats had demanded such a provision in the bill, saying Trump and his family would seek to benefit from what some called a “slush fund” to be controlled by the Treasury Department. The Trump hotel and resort empire, like others, has been hit hard by the outbreak of coronavirus and the resulting shutdowns across the world.
Senators who negotiated the final proposal told reporters that a $500 billion loan and loan guarantee program would be scrutinized by an independent inspector general and an oversight board.
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Trump was asked Sunday whether his business interests could benefit from the legislation. “I have no idea what they’re talking about,” he said. “Let’s just see what happens.”
Trump also noted that his children now control his businesses. Schumer’s office said the prohibition on aid also includes “the children, spouses and in-laws.”
– David Jackson
Contributing: The Associated Press
Source Article from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/03/25/coronavirus-mcconnell-schumer-trump-admin-announce-stimulus-deal/5076640002/
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