News & Media
Coronavirus April 13 Update: Negotiations For a New Relief Package Are on Hold, States Fight a Federal Mandate for Paid Sick Leave, and a Task Force Looks at When to Reopen the U.S.
Negotiations on hold
Republican congressional leaders resisted a call from Democrats to begin bipartisan talks on a new coronavirus aid package.
Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., called for opening negotiations after a phone call Friday with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who has served as the Trump administration's point man on spending deals. "There's no reason why we can't come to a bipartisan agreement by early next week," Schumer said in a statement.
But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., dismissed the idea over the weekend. In a joint statement, they blamed Democrats for refusing last week to replenish a dwindling fund for small-business loans. While sympathetic to the GOP request, Democrats have sought a broader $500 billion relief package to help states, hospitals and low-income families.
"Republicans reject Democrats' reckless threat to continue blocking job-saving funding unless we renegotiate unrelated programs which are not in similar peril.," McConnell and McCarthy said, as they insisted on pumping $251 billion into small-business loans. "This will not be Congress's last word on COVID-19, but this crucial program needs funding now. American workers cannot be used as political hostages."
The next opportunity for legislative movement comes Monday morning, when the Senate meets again in a pro forma session during a prolonged recess triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. A similar House session is scheduled for Tuesday.
Leaders of both parties made clear they disagreed over how quickly more money is needed for small-business loans and whether the next package must include more funding for hospitals and state and local governments, among other things.
National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow projected Friday the small business loan program will run out of money April 17. He told Fox Business the government had already approved 661,000 small business loans valued at $168 billion. Other aides said the money could run out even sooner. "We have days, not weeks," one aide said.
But Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters in a conference call last week that Republican claims of a depleted small-business loan program were overstated. "Right now they haven't even spent a third of it," the California Democrat said. "So we have time to negotiate."
As part of a $2.3 trillion financial rescue package (PL 116-136) enacted last month, Congress provided $349 billion in loans in a new "Paycheck Protection Program" to encourage small businesses to keep workers on their payrolls. The loans could be forgiven if most workers were retained.
Democrats want about half of the newly requested loan money to be tailored for smaller-sized businesses. And their push for a broader package won backing over the weekend from the National Governors Association, which issued a statement calling for an additional $500 billion in aid to states to replace lost state tax revenue. Paul M. Krawzak has the full story here.
Unfunded federal mandate for paid sick leave riles states
State and local governments have been hit by billions of dollars in unexpected new costs as part of a coronavirus relief package enacted last month.
A $192 billion relief measure (PL 116-127) required employers with fewer than 500 workers to provide paid sick leave and family and medical leave benefits. The federal government promised to reimburse employers for the costs by offering refundable tax credits on the employer's portion of each worker's payroll taxes.
But a little-noticed provision barred state and local governments from receiving the new tax credit, even though they are still required to provide paid leave benefits to their workers.
As a result, state and local governments already straining from an economic gut punch must find new revenue to finance the paid leave benefit. The collective price tag of the new mandate amounts to $20 billion in the next two years, according to an estimate from the Congressional Budget Office.
Within days of the law taking effect, state and local government officials fired off a March 21 letter of protest to top House and Senate leaders.
"We're against it in any way, shape or form because it is an unfunded mandate," said Jon Jukuri, federal affairs counsel for the National Conference of State Legislatures, which joined the letter backed by the Council of State Governments, the National Association of Counties and other groups. "We're going to continue to fight against it or get a fix of funding for it."
Task force created to evaluate when to reopen the U.S.
President Donald Trump said he would announce on Tuesday a task force focused on re-opening the country. The task force would include medical professionals, business people and governors from both political parties, Trump told reporters during a Friday White House briefing (view transcript).
The announcement comes as the administration's health officials are warning that while the number of new cases of COVID-19 is leveling off, the country still has not reached the peak of the pandemic. "As encouraging as they are, we have not reached the peak," Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator said, urging people to continue to follow the administration's social distancing guidelines.
Trump told reporters he would consider the advice of health professionals while making decisions about when to "re-open" the country and that if a second wave took effect he would consider taking steps to close down certain regions again.
WHO funding in focus
Trump said he will also have talks this week about how much funding the U.S. provides the World Health Organization, after threatening to cut off funding for the group last week. He said the U.S. has paid the organization more than ten times what China has provided to it but that the organization, which is part of the United Nations, favored China. "They are very, very China-centric," Trump said. "China always seems to get the better argument and I don't like that."
Charles E. Grassley on Friday released a letter he sent to WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus questioning the group's initial response to the COVID-19 pandemic and its reliance on data provided by China. Grassley, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, sent the letter to Ghebreyesus questioning how the group responded to information from China and its treatment of Taiwan.
"Rather than parroting Chinese propaganda and talking points, WHO should be making independent assessments," he wrote. "Like many of my colleagues in the United States Senate, I question Communist China's ability and willingness to coordinate in a transparent manner with international bodies when it comes to combating the threat of the coronavirus."