House and Senate lawmakers who left the Capitol in March due to the threat of the coronavirus will slowly return to work beginning this week as the two parties ramp up planning for a new round of economic aid and other measures to help the United States survive the impact of the outbreak.
The Senate planned to reconvene beginning on Monday with a vote to confirm Robert Feitel, President Trump’s nominee as inspector general of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
House Democratic leaders announced last week they too would reconvene on Monday, but pushback from many rank-and-file lawmakers worried about the coronavirus forced them to postpone those plans.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters last week the House may return the week of May 11.
“We’re not coming back this week. Our plan is to come back the following week,” the California Democrat said, citing the Capitol physician’s concerns about having 430 lawmakers “come back with what’s happening with the District of Columbia,” where the coronavirus outbreak remains serious.
In the meantime, she said lawmakers would meet via teleconference to discuss a new round of coronavirus-related aid that would provide historic levels of federal funding for state and local governments to make up for the economic losses associated with the virus.
The price tag for the legislation Democrats propose is massive: $500 billion in federal aid to state governments, plus “a very big figure” for local governments and municipalities. Pelosi told reporters the funding amounts to “almost a trillion dollars” that could get distributed over several years.
Also, Democrats want to increase federal Medicaid payments to states at a cost of $200 billion and will seek to include tens of billions of dollars to expand unemployment insurance, provide more direct cash payments to individuals and families, and give “hazard pay” to those out working during the coronavirus.
Pelosi told reporters last week the state and local aid alone would cost nearly $1 trillion.
The Senate is heading in a different direction.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, will forge ahead with confirming judicial and executive branch nominees and said he is planning to take up a series of “modest” bipartisan infrastructure bills.
The Senate Intelligence Committee scheduled a confirmation hearing this week for Rep. John Ratcliffe, Trump’s nominee as director of national intelligence.
McConnell said he’d consider some new economic aid for states but not for bailing out underfunded and poorly run state pension programs.
“We do want to help them with expenses that are directly related to the coronavirus outbreak,” McConnell told Fox News Radio’s Guy Benson. “But we’re not interested in helping them fix age-old problems that they haven’t had the courage to fix in the past.”
McConnell said any new funding must include liability protections for businesses that he said are critical to reopening the economy.
“That will be a condition for providing additional assistance to state and local governments,” McConnell told Fox News’s Neil Cavuto.
Some senators are unhappy with McConnell’s decision to reconvene, particularly because there is no legislation related to the coronavirus ready for a vote next week.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat, sent a letter to both McConnell and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer urging a postponement of the session. Eight Capitol Police officers and 11 other Capitol staff have contracted the coronavirus, Feinstein said in the letter.
“Bringing 100 Senators from around the country, including many coronavirus hotspots, along with many more staff, credentialed press, and others, to this environment risks all of us,” Feinstein wrote. “It also sends the wrong message to the American people, most of whom are being asked or directed to stay at home.”
