Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) will be forcing a vote on a “targeted” coronavirus relief bill next week to provide more funding for the hardest-hit small businesses amid the pandemic.
“When the full Senate returns on October 19th, our first order of business will be voting again on targeted relief for American workers, including new funding for the PPP,” McConnell said in a statement.
He added, “Unless Democrats block this aid for workers, we will have time to pass it before we proceed as planned to the pending Supreme Court nomination as soon as it is reported by the Judiciary Committee.”
McConnell argued there is “no excuse” for Democrats to block funding for the Paycheck Protection Program.
He noted Republicans voted to pass a bill to provide hundreds of billions more dollars for testing, healthcare, schools, unemployment benefits, and more economic support.
“But Senate Democrats chose to filibuster it dead,” McConnell said.
He explained, “Democrats have spent months blocking policies they do not even oppose. They say anything short of their multi-trillion-dollar wish list, jammed with non-COVID-related demands, is ‘piecemeal’ and not worth doing. Speaker Pelosi frequently says she feels ‘nothing’ is better than ‘something.’ And she has worked hard to ensure that nothing is what American families get.”
Pelosi and Mnuchin failed to reach an agreement on a stimulus bill on Friday, as IJR previously reported.
Mnuchin put forth a new $1.8 trillion proposal.
“We are still awaiting language from the administration as negotiations on the overall funding amount continue,” Pelosi aide Drew Hamill said.
The new package proposed by the White House is closer to the $2.2 trillion the House passed last week.
President Donald Trump indicated during an interview with conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh he “would like to see a bigger stimulus package, frankly, than either the Democrats or the Republicans are offering.”
