Mitch McConnell makes ‘liability shields’ the next coronavirus bill battleground

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is demanding that the next piece of coronavirus assistance legislation Congress passes includes a ‘liability shield’ – so businesses can’t be sued for COVID-19 infections among workers which could get them sued. 

McConnell said on Fox News Channel Tuesday that the Republicans were ‘open’ to considering another bill. ‘But my red line in going forward on this bill is, we need to provide protection, litigation protection, for those who’ve been on the front line – hospitals, doctors, nurses.’

‘And imagine you’re a businessman thinking about reopening and you have heard that the trial lawyers all over the country are sharpening their pencils, getting ready to sue you, claiming that you didn’t engage in proper distancing or other issues related to health and safety,’ McConnell said.  

The top Senate Republican reiterated that point Wednesday on the Brian Kilmeade Show. 

‘If there’s a lawyer out on the sidewalk looking at every move you make as to whether or not you somehow have been irresponsible in this phase one and two that we move into as we re-open America, that’s not the way to get the country going again,’ McConnell said.  

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said his ‘red line’ for the next bill is that it would need to include a ‘liability shield’ for businesses to protect them against lawsuits against any coronavirus infections they might cause 

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer bashed McConnell’s negotiating technique in an interview with PBS NewsHour on Tuesday saying the Republican leader shouldn’t ‘keep drawing these lines in the sand’ 

And so McConnell said businesses would need legal protection. 

‘We’re going to insist upon this reform, which is not related to money, as a condition for going forward,’ the Kentucky Republican said. 

The move comes as meat producers shut down processing plants because of outbreaks of the virus.

Donald Trump has signed a Defense Production Act to keep them open, which prevents workers from suing their employers for exposure to coronavirus.

But big business groups say they need protection from lawsuits from employees who contract the virus after returning to work. 

McConnell’s backing for such a shield sets up a partisan clash. 

He then said Republicans’ must-have is a liability shield. 

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told PBS NewsHour Tuesday that he had not seen McConnell’s proposal, but was wary that it would favor bosses over workers.  

‘But I will tell you, if it’s going to help big CEOs, and not help the workers or hurt the workers, that’s not going to happen,’ the New York Democrat said.  

Democrats’ top priority for the next bill is to provide more financial help to cash-strapped states. The CARES Act, passed by Congress last month, included $150 billion to go toward state and local governments. Governors have requested $500 billion more.  

McConnell, who had floated bankruptcy as a viable option, said he was open to giving that assistance. 

‘It is important, however, to understand that many states have systemic, longstanding challenges, many of them their pension funds, many of them from overspending,’ he said on Fox. ‘So, what we’re saying here is, we’re not interested in rescuing badly run states from the mistakes they have made completely unrelated to the coronavirus.’ 

 Schumer also laid into McConnell’s negotiating tactics. 

‘Why does McConnell have to keep drawing these lines in the sand that he later retreats from? One day it’s bankruptcy. One day, he’s not going to do anything but PPP?’ Schumer asked. ‘Why doesn’t he sit down and work with us, because people are hurting? He’s always drawing these ideological, politically driven lines in the sand. He almost inevitably has to back off from them. It makes no sense.’ 

President Trump, too, has been hesitant to give money to states – and called out blue states like Illinois by name, saying they’ve been mismanaged. 

But he opened the door to negotiations too, by pressuring so-called ‘sanctuary cities’ out of existence, which is in line with his hardline immigration policies. 

During his Tuesday meeting with Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, the president floated this new tactic. 

‘We’d have to talk about things like sanctuary cities, as an example, I think sanctuary cities is something that has to be brought up where people who are criminals are protected, they are protected from prosecution,’ Trump said.

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk