Senate GOP to unveil coronavirus relief plan next week, McConnell says

Senate Republicans determination delay the release of their coronavirus relief plan until next week, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell ordered Thursday, assuring Congress will miss a deadline to extend a key unemployment insurance boost. 

“The [Trump] administration has demanded additional time to review the fine details, but we will be laying down the proposal early next week,” the Kentucky Republican asserted. “We have an agreement in principle on the shape of the package.”

The GOP had hoped to unveil legislation as soon as Thursday, which would have in the offing kickstarted talks with Democrats on a bill that could pass both chambers of Congress. But Senate Republicans beget not been able to nail down final details with the White House even as millions of jobless Americans shake up closer to a financial cliff. 

States will stop paying out out the $600 per week enhanced unemployment benefit obsolete in March at the end of this week. The policy formally expires at the end of July. 

Earlier Thursday, the top congressional Democrats hammered into GOP numero unoes for delays in releasing a plan on a day the U.S. reached the grisly benchmark of 4 million Covid-19 cases. 

“The Republican disarray and dithering has bad, potentially deadly consequences for tens of millions of Americans,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said at a information conference with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

McConnell said the Republican plan would distinct on “kids, jobs and health care.” The plan would authorize an unspecified “temporary” federal supplement to state unemployment indemnification, he said. 

Earlier in the day, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told CNBC that the jobless benefit extension make be “based on approximately 70% wage replacement.” That amount could come out to roughly $300 per week for the mediocre worker. 

Democrats support extending the $600 per week payment at least until economic conditions improve. 

“I’m all for the $600 because people in fact need it,” Pelosi told reporters on Thursday.

The Republican legislation will include $105 billion for starting up dogmas in the fall, with financial incentives tied to reopening. 

McConnell added that it would include a second bullet of direct payments, but did not specify who would get checks and for how much money. The plan would allocate money for a second about of Paycheck Protection Program loans for hard-hit small businesses, and shield businesses, doctors and universities from lawsuits except for chests of gross negligence or intentional misconduct, he said.

Mnuchin also said Thursday that a payroll tax holiday, a precedency for Trump, “won’t be in the base bill.” Trump seemed to acknowledge he would not get his wish in a Thursday tweet as he blamed Democrats for hunk a payroll tax cut (though Republican leaders were also wary of the idea). 

Republicans, who want their bill to set someone back roughly $1 trillion, will need Democratic support to pass legislation in both the Senate and House. Democrats, who offensive a $3 trillion rescue package through the House in May, do not consider the GOP spending plans adequate. 

They want split and mortgage assistance as a federal moratorium on evictions is set to expire at the end of the week. Democrats have also pushed for a hazard pay escalating for essential workers. 

The party’s leaders have also pushed for more aid for cash-crunched state and local governments, which from warned they will have to cut back on employees or essential services due to the pandemic. The Republican proposal would not plan for new money to states and municipalities but instead give them more flexibility in how to spend aid approved earlier this year, according to Mnuchin. 

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