Senate reaches historic deal on $2 trillion Coronavirus economic rescue package

"This isn't even a stimulus package. It is emergency relief. Emergency Relief. That's what this is."

• By Susan Davis, Kelsey Snell, and Claudia Grisales/NPR

(Washington) — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell touted a bipartisan deal reached overnight to provide cash payments to Americans, help to struggling small businesses and more resources to states and local governments and hospitals. He committed to passing the legislation Wednesday.

“Nobody thinks legislation can end this. We cannot outlaw the virus. And no economic policy can fully end the hardship so long as the public health requires that we put so much of our commerce on ice,” he said Wednesday. “This isn’t even a stimulus package. It is emergency relief. Emergency Relief. That’s what this is.”

McConnell noted that much of the $2 trillion legislation is built on the proposal Senate Republicans unveiled on Sunday and downplayed changes Democrats were touting. He said he would leave it to others to decide whether “the last few changes merited three days of delay in the face of this worsening crisis.”

“That Washington drama does not matter anymore. The Senate is going to stand together, act together and pass this historic relief package today,” McConnell said.

Like President Trump, McConnell used a military analogy for confronting the coronavirus, saying, “this strange new reality has forced our nation onto something like war-time footing. A fight has arrived on our shores. We did not seek it. We did not want it. But now we’re going to win it.”

He said he would set a time for a procedural vote to advance the bill after discussing it with the Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer. Senators are still awaiting text of the legislation, which has not yet been made public.

It’s expected that a vote on the bill will come relatively quickly after the procedural vote Wednesday, but leaders are still negotiating timing. House Democrats are holding a series of calls to review the bill and if the bill is approved by the Senate today, the House could take it up quickly. In a letter to the Democratic caucus, Minority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said he remained “committed to giving House Members 24 hours’ notice before the House acts.”

The deal comes after days of intense negotiations and false starts among McConnell, Schumer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. McConnell, R-Ky., and Schumer, D-N.Y., announced news of a breakthrough on the Senate floor shortly after 1:30 a.m. Wednesday.

The plan marks the largest rescue package in American history. The legislation covers an array of programs, including direct payments to Americans, an aggressive expansion of unemployment insurance, billions in aid to large and small businesses, and a new wave of significant funding for the health care industry.

“We’re going to take up and pass this package to care for those who are now caring for us, and help carry millions of Americans through these dark, economic times,” Schumer said.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in a statement Wednesday, said she “will now review the legislative text of this agreement with our Caucus.”

Last weekend, Democrats had walked away from bipartisan talks among senators in favor of negotiating more directly with Mnuchin and the White House to get a final deal that reflects more of their priorities.

McConnell chafed at the tactics but supported the end result. “It’s taken a lot of noise and a lot of rhetoric to get us here,” he said on the Senate floor Tuesday morning.

It’s the third piece of bipartisan legislation to address the coronavirus pandemic this month, with two emergency stimulus bills already signed into law. But this latest deal eclipses the earlier packages in scope and spending, and amounts to what could be the most ambitious economic rescue effort in American history.

The agreement is an expansion of a Republican legislative proposal issued last week, dubbed the CARES Act — the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act — to provide relief to virtually every rung of the U.S. economic ladder.

Earlier this week, Democrats delayed negotiations because they wanted to include more conditions on the loan fund for corporations, more money for hospitals and more generous unemployment benefits. Democrats secured concessions on all three in the final deal.

Among the deal’s key provisions:

• The plan will rush financial assistance to Americans with direct checks to households in the middle class and in lower income levels, McConnell said. Previously, Republicans said this would amount to $1,200 to most American adults, among other payments.
• An extended unemployment insurance program for laid-off workers that will allow for four months of “full pay,” according to Schumer, rather than the usual three months for most. It will also raise the maximum unemployment insurance benefit by $600 per week. It will apply to traditional workers for small and large businesses as well as those who are self-employed and workers in the gig economy. This was a key Democratic initiative, which Schumer dubbed “unemployment insurance on steroids.”
• More than $150 billion for the health care system, including funding for hospitals, research, treatment and the Strategic National Stockpile to raise supplies of ventilators, masks and other equipment. Of that, $100 billion will go to hospitals and the health system and $1 billion to the Indian Health Service.
• $150 billion to state and local governments to address spending shortages related to the coronavirus pandemic.
• $350 billion for small businesses impacted by the pandemic in the form of loans; some of those loans could be forgiven.

The plan also includes several of Democratic oversight initiatives. Among those, it creates a Treasury Department special inspector general for pandemic recovery and a Pandemic Response Accountability Committee to oversee loans to businesses.

It also prohibits businesses controlled by the president, vice president, members of Congress and heads of executive departments from participating in the loan or investment programs, Schumer’s office said. In addition, the children, spouses and other relatives will also be banned, they said.

There are also provisions to ban stock buybacks for the term of government assistance plus an additional year for any company receiving a government loan from the bill. In addition, it establishes worker protections attached to federal loans for businesses and prohibits airlines from using the funds for CEO bonuses.

Schumer was backed up in negotiations by Pelosi, D-Calif., who returned to Washington on Sunday and called the initial McConnell proposal a “nonstarter.” House Democrats introduced a competing measure on Monday in the event a Senate deal collapsed.

Pelosi recently negotiated the second coronavirus package directly with Mnuchin and without McConnell’s involvement. That package, estimated to cost more than $100 billion, provided for new paid sick leave benefits and funds to expedite access to coronavirus testing. Republicans were tepid about the package, but President Trump endorsed it and it ultimately passed Congress with the support of 90% of lawmakers in both chambers.

Schumer has pledged that once a deal is reached, Democrats will not block expedited consideration. Congress can pass legislation by unanimous consent if no lawmaker objects. It is unclear whether they will be able to find that level of unity, but the urgency to vote and adjourn was widespread. Pelosi indicated in an interview with CNBC on Tuesday that she may try to get unanimous consent to clear the deal through the House chamber to save House lawmakers from flying back to Washington to pass it. House Republicans are strongly behind the measure, according to a senior GOP leadership congressional source.