The fate of the next economic aid package in Congress will hinge on whether Republicans and Democrats can agree on a provision to limit coronavirus-related lawsuits.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, announced that he wouldn’t bring a new spending bill to the floor unless it includes language shielding businesses, healthcare facilities, universities, and other entities operating during the pandemic from coronavirus-related lawsuits.
“If there is another rescue package, it must include, and will include, liability protections related narrowly to the coronavirus pandemic that has affected every single state in America,” McConnell said Thursday on Fox News. “That will have to be a part of any rescue package.”
But Democrats, who run the House, plan to pass an economic stimulus bill as soon as this week that would not include lawsuit protections.
They oppose lawsuit shield legislation, arguing that it would diminish protections for workers.
“Especially now, we have every reason to protect our workers and our patients and all of this,” Pelosi told reporters. “So we would not be inclined to be supporting any of immunity from liability.”
McConnell’s control over the Senate floor and President Trump’s support for providing a coronavirus-related lawsuit liability shield mean that Democrats will likely have to agree to it if they hope to pass any additional economic aid.
House Democrats plan to pass more than $1 trillion in new funding as soon as this week for state and local governments that have lost significant tax revenue due to the outbreak. Some Senate Republicans also support more help for state and local governments, providing a pathway to a compromise bill that could clear both chambers.
But it won’t move without the lawsuit shield, McConnell has pledged.
McConnell said people filed nearly 800 lawsuits related to the coronavirus as of last week.
“The trial lawyers are waiting to go after everybody who tries to get back to normal. And of course, the Democrats say we can’t possibly do that,” McConnell told Fox.
McConnell said the Senate’s liability protection legislation would extend to “universities, doctors, hospitals, healthcare workers,” and businesses.
Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican and member of the Senate leadership, is writing a bill that is likely to serve as the main legislative vehicle for the proposal.
The bill, an aide told the Washington Examiner, would shield businesses from lawsuits related to COVID-19 “as long as they have complied with relevant government guidelines for protecting against the spread of the virus.”
The measure would provide for removing coronavirus-related lawsuits from state courts but would still permit liability for wrongful conduct, the aide said.
One industry source close to the construction of the bill told the Washington Examiner that the premise of the legislation is: “If you are trying to do the right thing and follow what the health department and Centers for Disease Control says and you can’t control everything that happens in the atmosphere, you shouldn’t be liable for what is out of your control.”
The Senate legislation is also likely to shield corporations from shareholder lawsuits that claim they should have been warned of the risk of a pandemic hurting stock prices.
Special interest groups are taking sides for and against the proposal.
The Chamber of Commerce has come out strongly in favor of the legislation, but labor unions warn that shielding businesses from lawsuits would reduce employee safety. Consumer groups say it would promote health risks.
“Any recovery requires the public to have confidence that businesses are operating as safely as possible,” a letter to congressional leadership signed by union and consumer groups said. “Establishing legal immunity for businesses that operate unsafely would do the opposite of instilling public confidence. Instead, it would introduce new anxieties to an already highly anxious public. And it would have real-life consequences for every community since legal liability is one of the most powerful incentives we have to ensure that businesses operate safely.”
But McConnell said he’s not budging, telling reporters after a Republican luncheon near the Capitol that litigation protection is “a red line” for the Senate GOP.
Many states have started reopening some businesses and general health services but are being hindered by liability questions as they watch new lawsuits pile up, McConnell said.
Restarting the economy depends on protections from those lawsuits, McConnell said.
“This is going to impact our ability to begin to get back to work.”
