After President Donald Trump acted unilaterally to provide some relief to Americans, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin says he believes the Republicans and Democrats can reach an agreement on a coronavirus relief bill.
In an interview on CNBC on Monday, Mnuchin said, “I think there is a compromise if the Democrats are willing to be reasonable,” adding, “There is still a lot of things that we need to do and that we’ve agreed on.”
He noted that Republicans and Democrats agree that schools need money to reopen safely. Additionally, he said both sides agreed that they probably need to infuse the Paycheck Protection Program with more money to help small businesses, as well as provide funding for vaccine research and development.
And while both sides agreed that state and local governments need financial assistance, Mnuchin balked at Democrats’ proposal to allocate $1 trillion for that provision of the bill.
“We’ve given them flexibility, and we’ve offered more money for state and local. But we’re not going to give $1 trillion to state and local, that’s just not a reasonable approach,” he said.
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The funding for state and local has emerged as a sticking point in the negotiations. During an interview on Fox News on Sunday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) signaled that she had little interest in compromising the amount of funding for state and local governments.
She said, “What we have said, we’re going to honor our heroes — state and local, healthcare workers, etc., first responders, teachers and the rest — and that’s part of our argument is how much are they willing to do.”
Pelosi also said Democrats would be willing to limit how long their provisions would last but that they would not be willing to take provisions out of their bill.
While Mnuchin said he believes the two sides can reach a compromise, it is unclear when negotiations would begin.
On Sunday, Trump told reporters that Congressional Democrats reached out about restarting negotiations on a new coronavirus relief after he signed several executive orders designed to provide financial relief to Americans.
However, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) denied that he or Pelosi had done so, as IJR reported.
“Fables from Donald Trump. Fables. That’s what he seems to specialize in,” he said, adding, “He makes these things up or hears from somebody at one of his fundraisers or at his country club. Oh, the Democrats are calling you.’ He acts like it’s true.”