Democrats blocked the phase three coronavirus economic stimulus package again on Monday, even though Republicans claimed ahead of the vote that they were proposing a bipartisan bill.
Senators voted 49-46 Monday afternoon on the nearly $2 trillion stimulus bill – with a few ‘aye’ votes missing as five Republican senators self-quarantine over coronavirus fears.
Although Democrats and Republicans have spent days negotiating this package, talks dissolved on the Senate floor Monday as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer blamed each other for holding up the relief.
As the bipartisan effort in Congress continues to crumble, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is preparing to bring to the House floor her own phase three package.
The ‘Take Responsibility for Workers and Families Act’ is a counter bill that was proposed after McConnell blames Democrats for delaying the bill’s progress.
Pelosi claimed in a statement that the Republican bill in the Senate puts ‘corporations first, not workers and families.’
Some of the measures outlined in the new bill are already included in the Senate GOP package, but Senate Democrats claim the final product of the revised Senate bill still didn’t meet their minimum demands.
The noon vote on an economic stimulus package dissolved Monday into a Senate floor quarrel as Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer blamed each other for delaying financial aid to American people and companies.
Senate Majority Leader McConnell went on a tirade when he took the podium Monday, railing against Democrats for blocking the first version of the phase three economic stimulus bill Sunday night.
Democrats again were able to block the GOP-backed phase three economic stimulus bill as Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer’s Senate-floor statements dissolved into a partisan argument over who was holding up aid to the American people
As the package was blocked for the second time in two days, Nancy Pelosi revealed she was unveiling a counter proposal
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Monday Democrats are trying to get their ‘wish list’ of unrelated measures passed in the phase three economic stimulus bill – which he claims is why they blocked the bill Sunday night
‘Every time we hear the Majority Leader come out it’s a partisan screed,’ Chuck Schumer shot back, claiming Democrats are ‘trying to get things done’
The Kentucky Republican insisted that Democrats are holding up money to try and get measures passed that he claims are irrelevant.
‘Yesterday, when the time came to vote on these urgent measures, our Democratic colleagues chose to block it,’McConnell said of the phase three bill brought up for a vote Sunday night.
‘Why are Democrats filibustering the bipartisan bill they helped write? An appropriate question to ask this morning as the country waits on us,’ he continued. ‘So let me give the American people a taste of the outstanding issues we woke up to this morning.’
Schumer shot back during his statement immediately following McConnell’s that he is trying to ‘get things done,’ while he claims Republicans are playing the partisan blame-game.
McConnell shared what he called the ‘Democratic wish list’ of unrelated measures they were hoping to get passed with the nearly $2 trillion relief package, including tax credits for companies using solar and wind energy and setting new emission standards for airlines.
‘Are you kidding me?’ McConnell said, clearly aggravation. ‘This is the moment to debate new regulations that have nothing whatsoever to do with this crisis? That’s what they’re doing over there. American people need to know it.’
‘Democrats won’t let us fund hospitals or save new businesses unless they get the dust off the Green New Deal,’ he criticized.
Schumer said it was Republicans who were making the situation into partisan squabbles, but didn’t push back that his party was trying to get things passed in the bill that weren’t related to relief from coronavirus.
‘Every time we hear the Majority Leader come out it’s a partisan screed,’ Schumer asserted. ‘While I’m in my office with the president’s Secretary of Treasury, the president’s congressional liaison, getting things done.’
‘We Democrats are trying to get things done, not making partisan speech after partisan speech,’ he continued.
Steven Mnuchin urged lawmakers earlier in the day Monday to get the nearly $2 trillion package passed through Congress to continue combatting the economic fallout from the coronavirus outbreak.
‘We are going to make sure we get through this and we are going to win this war,’ the Treasury secretary told Maria Bartiromo on Fox Business Network Monday morning.
‘I want everybody to know, we need to get this legislation passed today,’ he pleaded.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin urged senators to get the phase three stimulus package passed Monday after the first version of the bill failed to get through the upper chamber on Sunday
‘I want everybody to know, we need to get this legislation passed today,’ Mnuchin said during a phone call interview with Fox Business Monday morning, adding he was getting off the phone soon to head to the Senate to meet with bipartisan leadership there
Mnuchin has been spearheading the administration’s efforts to get a bipartisan bill passed. The former Democrat has worked with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in the past and was able to help get the $100 trillion phase two bill passed earlier this month.
‘I am on my way to the Senate this morning to meet with Mitch McConnell and his team and Senator Schumer,’ Mnuchin told Fox Business.
‘You can ask that question to Democrats,’ he said when asked why Democrats are pushing back on the bill that was already proposed. ‘What I am saying is we need this to pass today.’
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Mnuchin spent all night negotiating measures both Republicans and Democrats could agree on, meeting a handful of times Sunday to get the bill ready.
‘Leader Schumer and Secretary Mnuchin are working late into the night, and they just had another productive meeting,’ a spokesman for Schumer said in a statement after 9:00 p.m. Sunday night.
Majority Leader McConnell is prepared to lay out the new bill on the Senate floor at 12:00 p.m.
A bit after midnight Schumer spoke to reporters on Capitol Hill, telling them there were major ‘problems’ with the first version of the bill McConnell presented Sunday night.
‘Huge amounts of corporate bailout funds without restrictions or without oversight – you wouldn’t even know who is getting the money,’ the Democratic leader said at 12:20 a.m. of the failed measure.
‘Not enough money for hospitals, nurses, PPE [personal protective equipment], masks – all the health care needs. No money for state and local government, many of whom would go broke. Many other things,’ he continued.
‘So we’re working hard to make them better, and we are making progress,’ Schumer said of bipartisan efforts. ‘We’re getting closer and closer. And I’m very hopeful, is how I’d put it, that we can get a bill in the morning.’
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is preparing to bring the revised phase three economic stimulus package to the floor for a second vote Monday morning
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters at the Capitol after late-night negotiating that there were major ‘problems’ with the first version of the bill presented by McConnell
Schumer met several times Sunday with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin (center) on Sunday to discuss the more than $1.5 trillion bill
Congressional leadership met several times over the weekend to negotiate the details of the bill. McConnell’s office revealed a picture of him talking with house Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin
The third phase of a stimulus package was unable to pass through the Senate Sunday as Democrats blocked the GOP measure meant to target economic fallout from the coronavirus outbreak.
The ‘ayes’ fell particularly short Sunday night as five Republicans self-quarantined and were unable to go to the floor to cast their votes.
The measure failed with a tie vote of 47 voting in favor of the stimulus package and 47 voting against it.
Kentucky Republican Rand Paul announced Sunday afternoon that he tested positive for coronavirus, causing a handful of other GOP senators to self-isolate over fears they contracted the virus.
‘He is feeling fine and is in quarantine,’ a tweet from his official Twitter account revealed in the statement announcing Paul’s condition.
‘He is asymptomatic and was tested out of an abundance of caution due to his extensive travel and events. He was not aware of any direct contact with any infected person,’ the statement continued.
‘He expects to be back in the Senate after his quarantine period ends and will continue to work for the people of Kentucky at this difficult time.’
Paul is the first senator to test positive for the fast-spreading respiratory disease and the third member of Congress.
Representatives Mario Diaz Balart of Florida and Ben McAdams of Utah revealed last week that they have also tested positive.
Five Republican senators are self-isolating, including Rand Paul, who’s office announced Sunday that he tested positive for coronavirus – becoming the first senator to contract the disease
Utah Senator Mitt Romney announced Sunday he was quarantining after coming into close contact with Paul several times in the last week and claimed he would be taking a test to see if he contract the virus
Utah Republican Mitt Romney announced Sunday he would be self-isolating after coming in close contact with Paul several times in the last week.
‘Since Senator Romney sat next to Senator Paul for extended periods in recent days and consistent with CDC guidance, the attending physician has ordered him to immediately self-quarantine and not to vote on the Senate floor,’ Romney’s office said in a statement.
The announcement came about an hour after Paul’s office revealed the senator’s situation.
McConnell is facing extra obstacles on getting the bill passed as the Republican majority has essentially slimmed with five unable to show up for votes as they remain in self-isolation.
Democrats, Republicans and Trump have all expressed they are interested in implementing a temporary measure to allow lawmakers to vote remotely as more and more self-quarantine over fears of contracting or spreading coronavirus.
More than 50 congressmen and women have already signed onto a resolution proposed by California Democrat Eric Swalwell demanding that the House allow remote voting.
The number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the U.S. have skyrocketed in the last few days as nearly the whole country is working form home and self-quarantining
There are more than 35,000 confirmed cases and 471 deaths
The measure argues that Congress is breaking the guidelines outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on social distancing by gathering hundreds of people into the same space for sessions.
Democratic Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois and Republican Senator Rob Portman of Ohio are proposing a similar remote voting resolution on the Senate side of Congress.
‘We could be in a position where – I certainly would be in favor of it. Where they could vote from a certain outside location. I would be in favor of it,’ Trump said Sunday during a White House coronavirus task force briefing.
‘I was thinking about it today, I mean we could be in this – look, with what’s going on, nobody’s seen anything like this. You could have a lot of people in there from Congress,’ he continued. ‘I would be totally in favor of it on a temporary basis.’