WASHINGTON – U.S. top democracies Congress on Thursday called for renewed negotiations on a multi-billion dollar coronavirus aid proposal, but the top Republican immediately rejected their approach as too expensive, continuing with the issue for months.
“It’s like the house is on fire and they just refuse to throw water at it,” Pelosi said of Republicans.
He and Schumer told a news conference that the victory of President-elect Joe Biden strengthened the Democratic position, spending at least $ 2.2 trillion on the other side of the coronavirus, more than the $ 3 trillion Congress has received since the epidemic began. Republican President Donald Trump did not agree with Biden.
“We are determined to sit down and talk; “They did not want to talk,” Schumer said, referring to the post-election congress.
Senate leader Mitch McConnell, speaking to reporters in the hallway a few minutes later, said he preferred the Republic’s previous $ 500 million proposals, which he said would focus on “remaining problems.”
That is not the place I think we intend to go, ”McConnell said.
“But I think there is a need to add another package,” the Republican said. “We hope to get through that difficult situation.”
A senior Trump administration official said he was leaving any talks about the coronavirus aid package to McConnell and Pelosi for now. But there was no sign that such talks were imminent. Finance Secretary Steven Mnuchin successfully negotiated with Pelosi a few weeks ago in the fall.
Pelosi and Schumer spoke to Biden on Thursday by telephone and all three “discussed the urgent need for Congress to reunite in a paralyzed duck system” in order to transfer aid to the coronavirus, Biden’s reform group said in a statement.
The bill should include resources to fight the epidemic, liberalization of working families and small businesses, support for local and local governments, increased unemployment insurance, and affordable health care for millions of families, the statement said.
The Democratic-majority House in May approved an additional $ 3.4 trillion in aid of coronavirus aid, but it did not go anywhere in McConnell’s Senate, where Schumer’s Democrats blocked Republicans ’low-cost proposals in the grassroots.
A long-serving Republican in Congress, 87-year-old Advocate Don Young, announced on Thursday that he was infected with the coronavirus, the last of more than 20 members of Congress infected.