Summary
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has set tomorrow as the deadline for an agreement on a COVID-19 relief package before the election as prospects on a deal continue to dim. While Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has agreed he would consider an agreement, he remains very dubious of the latest talks and is pressing on with a vote Tuesday to consider a much smaller $500 billion bill. Whether Pelosi now truly wants a deal before the election and whether a significantly weakened President Trump could convince Senate Republicans to accept a compromise remains a longshot. Failure to pass a package this week could result in the eventual introduction of a smaller, shorter deal in the Lame Duck Congress that would bridge relief until January.
In a Dear Colleague letter issued last week, Speaker Pelosi noted that Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin agreed to a “provision on testing with ‘minor’ changes to the language.” Since the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, Democrats have been calling for a national strategy for COVID-19 testing, contact tracing, and surveillance – all of which are becoming more critical as hotspots continue to erupt across the country. Despite that agreement, Speaker Pelosi emphasized that “many other disagreements remain,” such as state and local aid, tax credits (Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit), and funding for small businesses and child-care providers. She also pointed out that the Administration’s current proposal “contains multiple deadly poison pills – including their radical Liability Provision.”
Liability provisions, a red line for Leader McConnell, will likely be included in the $500 billion “targeted relief” package that the Senate is expected to vote on this week. In a press statement, he said the package would contain new funding for the Paycheck Protection Program. Whether the package will replenish the Provider Relief Fund and provide additional funding for testing and contact tracing remains unclear. Senate Republicans’ previous targeted relief bill did not include additional funding the Provider Relief Fund and included $16 billion for testing and contact tracing (compared to $75 billion in the updated Heroes Act and in Secretary Mnuchin’s offer).
Meanwhile, Senate Republicans are pressing forward with the nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. The Senate Judiciary Committee will vote on Thursday (October 22), followed by a procedural vote on Friday (October 23). The Senate is expected to hold a final vote the week of October 26, just days before the election and in time for Barrett to hear oral arguments for the Affordable Care Act (ACA) lawsuit (California v. Texas) on November 10.
On Thursday, President Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden will go head-to-head in the second and final presidential debate at Belmont University in Nashville, TN. Kristen Welker, NBC News White House correspondent, the debate moderator, has chosen the following topics: (1) Fighting COVID-19; (2) American Families; (3) Race in America; (4) Climate Change; (5) National Security; and (6) Leadership. The pandemic and the ACA are bound to remain an important part of this discussion.
As Senate Democrats have framed their campaign against the Supreme Court nomination of Barrett as a fight for the ACA, House Democrats are also using every opportunity possible before election to highlight the Trump administration’s efforts to chip away at the ACA. Tomorrow, the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Oversight will convene a hearing on health coverage enrollment amid the administration’s “sabotage.”