WASHINGTON — When it comes to the new coronavirus recovery package roiling the capital, Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana could use some detective help from the F.B.I., which has unexpectedly found itself an unwitting accomplice in a legislative meltdown.
“I’d like to know what’s in the bill,” Mr. Kennedy, who is part of the Republican majority that wrote the measure, proclaimed Tuesday afternoon as he exited a closed luncheon where his colleagues met with top Trump administration officials to unsuccessfully hash out their deep differences over new legislation that apparently remained a mystery to many.
All you need to know about the state of that measure is that Mr. Kennedy said he had set his own staff to sleuthing through it to determine what it contained — and what it didn’t — and would decide how to proceed from there.
Approval of any rescue remains a good ways off.
“I have questions,” said Mr. Kennedy, who might have been more vocal than others about his dissatisfaction with the legislation, the process that produced it and the strategy to pass it. But he was certainly not alone.
Much of Washington also had questions, like: Is any legislation going to pass? Can Congress do it before a scheduled summer break at the end of next week? What will the final cost be? Will tens of millions of anxious laid-off workers continue to receive extra jobless aid, and how much? What happens, politically and practically, if nothing passes? Oh, and will President Trump get his $1.75 billion to make sure any replacement for the decrepit, Brutalist-style F.B.I. building across the street from his luxury hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue stays in its prime location, in what Democrats believe is a naked ploy to ensure that a competing hotel doesn’t take its place?
Mr. Trump suggested on Wednesday that he was not all that interested in the fate of the broader package that is consuming Capitol Hill — though he blasted Republicans for their queasiness about including the F.B.I. money. After calling his own party’s $1 trillion proposal “semi-irrelevant” on Tuesday, he told reporters that he preferred a pared-down measure to a sweeping economic stabilization package that would have to be worked out with Democrats.
“You work on the payments for the people,” Mr. Trump said Wednesday, referring to another round of stimulus checks for Americans, “and the rest of it — we’re so far apart, we don’t care.”
Congress is once again careening over a cliff — this time with the expiration of expanded unemployment benefits that have cushioned millions of Americans from the blow of the economic crisis — and there is more than a little “Thelma and Louise” feel to the whole situation. Republicans are nowhere near agreement among themselves, and the various legislative proposals introduced on Monday after a three-day delay do not appear to have anything near majority Republican support, let alone backing from Democrats who instantly attacked them.
“I think it’s a statement of the obvious that I have members who are all over the lot on this,” Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, told reporters after the closed lunch session. “There are some members who think we’ve already done enough, other members who think we need to do more. This is a complicated problem.”
He left it up to Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, and Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, to work something out with Democrats.
The Republican dynamic serves only to empower Democrats who will have to provide the necessary votes to pass any legislation in the House and the Senate, meaning the resistance from conservative Republicans opposed to spending more is, ironically, only going to increase the amount of money that must be in the bill to win over Democrats.
“If it is going to be passed with mainly Democratic votes, it is going to be mainly a Democratic bill,” acknowledged Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas and the author of the liability protections that Republicans insist should be in any final legislation.
Months ago, House Democrats produced their own $3 trillion bill, which is three times the size of the Republican legislation, and given the state of the Republican negotiating position, they are in no hurry to cede much ground.
“I think we should just hold firm,” said Senator Chris Van Hollen, Democrat of Maryland.
Republicans recognize they are going to have to make some concessions, though they are scrambling to do whatever they can to hold their own line.
“I’d like to keep it as close to the original number as possible,” said Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming, the No. 3 Senate Republican.
Democrats, typically the party described as being in disarray, expressed amazement at the disorder among Republicans, considering that they had months to come up with a proposal after Mr. McConnell in May had called for a “pause” in sending more federal dollars out the Capitol door.
“In my many years of serving in this chamber, I have never seen a Republican majority — or a Senate majority of any type — respond to a national emergency in such a disorganized and disoriented fashion,” Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, said on Tuesday. “They can’t agree on one bill. They can’t get 51 votes for anything that is comprehensive.”
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Frequently Asked Questions
Updated July 27, 2020
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Should I refinance my mortgage?
- It could be a good idea, because mortgage rates have never been lower. Refinancing requests have pushed mortgage applications to some of the highest levels since 2008, so be prepared to get in line. But defaults are also up, so if you’re thinking about buying a home, be aware that some lenders have tightened their standards.
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What is school going to look like in September?
- It is unlikely that many schools will return to a normal schedule this fall, requiring the grind of online learning, makeshift child care and stunted workdays to continue. California’s two largest public school districts — Los Angeles and San Diego — said on July 13, that instruction will be remote-only in the fall, citing concerns that surging coronavirus infections in their areas pose too dire a risk for students and teachers. Together, the two districts enroll some 825,000 students. They are the largest in the country so far to abandon plans for even a partial physical return to classrooms when they reopen in August. For other districts, the solution won’t be an all-or-nothing approach. Many systems, including the nation’s largest, New York City, are devising hybrid plans that involve spending some days in classrooms and other days online. There’s no national policy on this yet, so check with your municipal school system regularly to see what is happening in your community.
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Is the coronavirus airborne?
- The coronavirus can stay aloft for hours in tiny droplets in stagnant air, infecting people as they inhale, mounting scientific evidence suggests. This risk is highest in crowded indoor spaces with poor ventilation, and may help explain super-spreading events reported in meatpacking plants, churches and restaurants. It’s unclear how often the virus is spread via these tiny droplets, or aerosols, compared with larger droplets that are expelled when a sick person coughs or sneezes, or transmitted through contact with contaminated surfaces, said Linsey Marr, an aerosol expert at Virginia Tech. Aerosols are released even when a person without symptoms exhales, talks or sings, according to Dr. Marr and more than 200 other experts, who have outlined the evidence in an open letter to the World Health Organization.
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What are the symptoms of coronavirus?
- Common symptoms include fever, a dry cough, fatigue and difficulty breathing or shortness of breath. Some of these symptoms overlap with those of the flu, making detection difficult, but runny noses and stuffy sinuses are less common. The C.D.C. has also added chills, muscle pain, sore throat, headache and a new loss of the sense of taste or smell as symptoms to look out for. Most people fall ill five to seven days after exposure, but symptoms may appear in as few as two days or as many as 14 days.
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Does asymptomatic transmission of Covid-19 happen?
- So far, the evidence seems to show it does. A widely cited paper published in April suggests that people are most infectious about two days before the onset of coronavirus symptoms and estimated that 44 percent of new infections were a result of transmission from people who were not yet showing symptoms. Recently, a top expert at the World Health Organization stated that transmission of the coronavirus by people who did not have symptoms was “very rare,” but she later walked back that statement.
Adding to the Republican unease was the focus on the spending for the new F.B.I. building. After being caught off guard that the money remained in the legislation Monday, Republicans from Mr. McConnell on down seemed very uncomfortable at having been drawn so directly into what appeared to be a concerted effort to use a large amount of taxpayer dollars to protect the business interests of the president.
Some visibly winced as they hemmed and hawed about why the money was included in emergency legislation, until Mr. McConnell said during a news conference that ultimately, he wanted provisions unrelated to the pandemic, like the F.B.I. funding, to go away. Other senior lawmakers gathered with him nodded in agreement, eager to be done with the Trump-induced controversy.
The president wasn’t ready to relent, though, and told reporters at the White House that any Republican allies questioning the expenditure “should go back to school and learn.” He said the building was dangerous and should stay in its current location because of its proximity to the main Justice Department headquarters.
The F.B.I. dispute was only a symptom of a larger problem. Republicans have made cutting the $600 in added weekly unemployment pay included in the stimulus law enacted in March a central element of their approach. They have contended that the benefit is so generous it has discouraged Americans from returning to their jobs — a notion that most Democrats reject.
As a substitute, they are proposing a system where recipients would receive an extra $200 per week — a two-thirds cut from what they are getting now — while state unemployment offices devise a system that would ultimately allow individualized payments capped at 70 percent of what they were earning before.
The problem is that some Republicans don’t want to spend any money on new aid, while others doubt the state unemployment offices will be able to technologically adapt and provide the tailored benefits. Mr. Kennedy joked on Tuesday that some of those offices “just got microwaves last week” and that Congress should instead come up with an acceptable flat figure.
Even with the fate of the legislation so uncertain, many lawmakers still seemed optimistic that a deal would eventually be reached. With so many Americans suffering — and an election so close at hand — it appears to be one of those “too big to fail” moments when not delivering federal relief just doesn’t seem like an acceptable outcome for those in power.
Still, given the current state of things, failure remains a real possibility.
“Who knows,” said Senator Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska. “Maybe this place is just crazy.”
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