News & Media
Coronavirus April 6 Update: Building on Coronavirus Aid, Questions About Stockpile Distributions and a New Government Affairs Community
Building on coronavirus aid
The financial rescue package Congress passed late last month sounded huge at the time.
The roughly $2.3 trillion measure (PL 116-136) was a smorgasbord of cash payments, business loans and grants, expanded health care and food aid and more. Combined with two earlier relief bills (PL 116-123, PL 116-127), the rescue effort promised to cost about $2.5 trillion—or more than a tenth of the size of the total economy.
But the sticker shock didn't last long. Not since 10 million people filed for unemployment benefits over the last two weeks. And not since the Congressional Budget Office projected the unemployment rate would top 10 percent this quarter and gross domestic product would contract by at least 7 percent, as Doug Sword reports.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is pushing hard for another recovery package that she says would fix flaws in and build on the just-completed package.
A $349 billion loan program for small businesses has already proved inadequate, she suggested. It must be "doubled down" to float cash-strapped firms for perhaps 16 weeks, up from eight weeks in current law.
Democrats may want to push to extend the length of expanded unemployment benefits from the four months provided in last month's bill to their initial request of six months or longer, Pelosi said. There should be another round of cash payments to families, she said, and more help for state unemployment offices that are being inundated with new claims.
"Our communities cannot afford to wait, and we must move quickly," Pelosi wrote in a letter to Democratic colleagues over the weekend. "It is my hope that we will craft this legislation and bring it to the Floor later this month."
Republicans were initially skeptical of the need for another relief package so soon, saying they wanted to focus on making sure the just-completed $2.3 trillion measure is implemented effectively. But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell signaled a change of heart in recent days.
"There will be a next measure," the Kentucky Republican told the Associated Press in an interview late last week. And funding for health care should be at the "top of the list," he said.
In one concession to Republicans wary of wrapping long standing policy priorities in the guise of pandemic relief, Pelosi suggested a major infrastructure spending plan might have to wait. That's despite President Donald Trump's support for as much as $2 trillion in new spending on roads, bridges, transit, broadband and more. Jessica Wehrman has more on Pelosi's game plan here.
McConnell applauded Pelosi's apparent decision to tailor the next package more narrowly. He tweeted that he was glad the speaker was "standing down from efforts to use this crisis to push unrelated left-wing priorities." Even so, he told the AP he is "not in favor of rushing" into the next relief measure, a stance that makes the timing of another bill uncertain.
The bottom line: The next round of aid could take longer to put together—assuming lawmakers are able to reconvene later this month at all.
These National Guard members also serve in Congress. Now they're fighting COVID-19
Max Rose will be setting up field hospitals. Michael Waltz helped run a testing site in an empty parking lot. They're among those facing the coronavirus pandemic with a distinctive job title: They're members of Congress, but they also serve in the National Guard.
With Congress out for an extended recess until at least April 20, lawmakers are turning to work in their districts, and for some that includes preparing to deploy. Eight current House members are soldiers or airmen in the National Guard, and two so far have put on their uniforms to fight the spread of COVID-19.
Rose announced he would deploy Wednesday with his unit in New York. The Democrat, who represents Staten Island and a portion of Brooklyn, will act as an operations officer in his home city, where emergency rooms are overflowing. That means he could find himself crisscrossing his own 11th District, helping the same people who voted him into office (and the people who didn't).
This time, it will be a different kind of campaign. "You won't be hearing from me nearly as much because I'll be activated in the military," he said in a video message posted on Twitter. His duties will include working to "build up field hospitals and increase beds," according to Rose's communications director, Jonas Edwards-Jenks.
Paul V. Fontelo has more here.
Questions remain about how FEMA distributes stockpiled supplies
How the Federal Emergency Management Agency allocates supplies from the national stockpile has come into question in recent days amid a global run on personal protective equipment and ventilators.
In the absence of more details from FEMA about how it's making its determinations, Sen. Christopher S. Murphy has raised concerns that political calculations from the White House are playing a role.
"Further, to the extent the federal government has been engaged in allocating critical medical resources, there has been a deeply problematic degree of confusion and lack of transparency in the way the allocation decisions are made and which states' requests are met," Murphy wrote. "There remains a serious and damaging perception that medical supplies and personal protective equipment have not been properly and equitably distributed in accordance with the threat and need, but rather based on political or personal motives."
The Strategic National Stockpile is typically overseen by the Department of Health and Human Services. But in mid-March Trump declared a national emergency and invoked the Stafford Act, shifting that responsibility to FEMA—the first public health emergency to trigger such an action and the first time that authority had been invoked on a national scale. FEMA's existing procedures are more suited for a localized natural disaster, experts in emergency response say.
Cash payments obstacle
Promised cash payments of up to $1,200 to most adults may not be easy to obtain for some of those most in need.
One hurdle was cleared last week, when the Treasury Department announced that Social Security recipients who do not typically file a tax return would get their payments automatically. The decision reversed earlier guidance that a tax return would need to be filed.
"Social Security recipients who are not typically required to file a tax return need to take no action, and will receive their payment directly to their bank account," Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced in a statement, after fielding complaints from lawmakers about the potential paperwork burden.
But many other low-income residents may not be so fortunate. Some 3 million seniors and disabled individuals receiving Supplemental Security Income and more than 200,000 people who get certain veterans' benefits could miss out on the promised stimulus payments if they are unable to file a tax return, said Chuck Marr, senior director of federal tax policy for the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
Supplemental Security Income, or SSI, provides cash assistance for low-income elderly, blind or disabled individuals to help buy basic necessities like food and clothing.
"Filing a tax return would be difficult for many SSI recipients and veterans' pension recipients even during normal times," Marr wrote in a blog post. "They include very low-income seniors and people with disabilities, some of whom have cognitive disabilities and other challenges that make it difficult to complete the required tax forms without assistance, and veterans with disabilities who similarly can face challenges with red tape."
House Ways and Means Chairman Richard E. Neal, D-Mass., who had pushed to exempt Social Security recipients from the tax return filing requirement, called on Mnuchin to do the same for other needy groups. "I am relieved that Secretary Mnuchin has heeded that call, but our work is not done," Neal said in a statement. "Now, Treasury should build on this progress and make the same automatic payment to some veterans and those who receive Supplemental Security Income."