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Negotiations on a COVID-19 relief bill remained stuck in Congress on Friday, as disputes over liability and aid to states tripped up earlier optimism.
Speaking on the Senate floor, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell repeated a call for a relief package that has no protection for companies from coronavirus-related lawsuits but also no state and local aid.
“I propose setting aside both liability protections and state and local bailouts and making law where we can agree,” said the Kentucky Republican.
But that idea was once again rejected by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who said: “To equate, state and local aid — money for policemen, firefighters, bus drivers, sanitation workers — to complete corporate immunity is false equivalence.” The New York Democrat said the liability shield had no support among Democrats while “many Republicans” back state and local aid.
U.S. stocks SPX, -0.13% opened lower Friday, hurt in part by the lack of stimulus progress. The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.16% turned about 30 points higher in early-afternoon trading.
Lawmakers on Friday afternoon bought themselves more time to negotiate on COVID aid and a broader government-spending bill, as the Senate passed a one-week stopgap budget. The measure was passed earlier by the House and now goes to President Donald Trump for signature.
Thursday, both House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin had reported progress in talks on more aid. But optimism faded after McConnell’s staff was reported to have told House and Senate leadership staff that a bipartisan group’s attempt to combine $160 billion in state and local aid and a temporary liability shield probably wouldn’t pass muster with most Republicans.
There had previously been optimism that the bipartisan group’s $908 billion aid proposal might be acceptable to enough Democrats and Republicans to deliver relief to struggling Americans before the end of the year.
Meanwhile, Politico reported Friday that committee leaders in both chambers have begun negotiating noncontroversial aspects of the relief package, including small business funding. The report described the fresh talks as a last-ditch attempt to cobble together a stimulus deal.
Victor Reklaitis contributed to this report.
