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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell departs a Sept. 30 news conference.
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It’s been more than a week since the U.S. elections, which ushered in a new president-elect and set up two January runoffs to determine control of the Senate. So the conditions for another coronavirus economic package must have changed, too, right?
Not so fast, at least judging by the post-election rhetoric from both House and Senate leaders. The White House, after initially making some positive noises, has been quiet on the subject recently, which may not bode well.
Before the election, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, had wanted a larger package than offered by the White House and much larger than what Senate Majority Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, said he could pass. That hasn’t changed.
“We’re at that same place, even more so with the pandemic,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at a press conference Thursday.
She said the victory by President-elect Joe Biden was also an endorsement for the candidate’s plan to fight the coronavirus pandemic. “What they have been proposing is very similar to what we had in the Heroes Act and we just have to fight,” she said.
McConnell told reporters he stood by his belief another large package is unneeded, in part because of October’s 6.9% jobless rate and the economy’s 33.1% annualized growth rate in the third quarter.
“I gather she and the Democratic Leader in the Senate still are looking at something dramatically larger. That’s not a place I think we’re willing to go. But I do think there needs to be another package,” he said.
Aid to state and local governments has been a top Democratic demand throughout the negotiations and one of the biggest sticking points for Republicans.
Read more: Democrats push for generous state aid and jobless payments but data not as bad as expected
While state and local budget pictures have not been as bad as in many cases as initially feared, the states have taken significant hits and may find it harder to get by the longer the pandemic goes on.
Already, education jobs have been cut, according to a new report by the Pew Charitable Trusts. Citing Labor Department data, Pew found state and local education employment was down 8.8% in October compared with October 2019, bringing it to its lowest level since 2000.
At the same time, the White House has been focused on trying to convince people President Trump did not lose the election and has said little about a second large-scale fiscal stimulus package lately.
One report, from Bloomberg News, said the White House was even stepping back from the talks to let Senate Republicans, who had trouble getting to a unified stance before the election, take the lead in talking to Democrats about more financial aid.
That would be a change from the day after the election, when Larry Kudlow, the director of the National Economic Council, said he hoped to see a deal in the lame duck session of Congress.
“There are still a couple of very crucial asks that we would like with respect to small business assistance, PPP, and unemployment assistance, to get people through the next few months,” Kudlow he said in an interview with CNBC.
The stalemate in Washington could continue even as several states have already imposed or are looking to reimpose coronavirus-related lockdowns and restrictions as the virus is causing hospitalization numbers to rise to record levels.
Both Pelosi and McConnell have said they see the lame duck as the period in which to get a deal done, but past self-imposed deadlines have come and gone without a bargain being struck.
It also remains unclear whether either Pelosi or McConnell supports tying a stimulus deal to an omnibus funding bill that will need to be passed by Dec. 11 to keep the government open. The Senate made its offer this week on that issue, while House lawmakers are set to return to Washington next week.
Sen. Richard Shelby, the Alabama Republican who heads the Senate Appropriations Committee, said it was possible a stimulus bill gets wrapped up with the next government funding bill.
“I don’t know. I’d like to see us do both,” he told reporters Thursday.
With Senate control in the next Congress hinging on the outcome of two Senate elections in Georgia on Jan. 5, though, Republican willingness to offer much more aid now is limited.
“I was very disappointed in her comments the other day, where she said she’s not budging on her proposal. I mean, frankly, I was appalled,” said Sen. John Kennedy of Pelosi, speaking to reporters Tuesday after a caucus lunch.
“We still have millions of people unemployed, all through no fault of their own. We need to help them,” the Louisiana Republican said, “but the bill needs to be targeted. And I am not going to vote for a bill that includes a lot of Pelosi spending or policy porn. I’m not going to do it, and I don’t think most Republicans will.”
