Second Stimulus Update: Size of Direct Check Worries McConnell

KEY POINTS

Lawmakers are working to strike a compromise by Friday
A big sticking point is the amount of a direct check

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell predicts lawmakers will strike a coronavirus stimulus deal before they leave Washington for the holidays, but expects a tough time getting them to agree on the size of any direct check to taxpayers.

On the table right now is a $900 billion package that includes a $600 direct check and another $300 in supplemental unemployment benefits. The $2.2 trillion CARES Act -- passed in March but now expired -- included a $1,200 check and $600 in supplemental jobless insurance.

Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, a Republican, and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent, are working together to raise the amount of the direct check to $1,200.

On Twitter, McConnell made a plea on behalf of taxpayerspeople need help.

“We need vaccine distribution money. We need to re-up the Paycheck Protection Program to save jobs,” the Kentucky Republican tweeted Wednesday. “We need to continue to provide for laid-off Americans. Congressional leaders on both sides are going to keep working until we get it done.”

Money for vaccine distribution also is in the package as well as a longer moratorium on evictions and student loan relief.

But the measure leaves out funding for states and municipalities, a priority for Democrats, as well as legal protections so companies can't be sued for pandemic-related grievances, a favorite of Republicans.

Among the sticking points is whether to increase payments from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to local governments, which spent money fighting the outbreak.

Sen. John Thune, the second-ranking Republican, thinks those reimbursements are the same as the state and local funding that Democrats want.

“If it’s simply a way of disguising money for state and local governments, we’ll have a lot of opposition,” Thune said, according to Reuters.

Republicans and Democrats have been negotiating since the Nov. 3 election; they're scheduled to break for the winter holidays Friday.

Seeking to push something through before lawmakers break for recess, the bill was split in two, with $160 billion in funding for state and local governments spun off as a separate entity.