Congress is back and faced with trying to overcome an impasse on a coronavirus aid package that has lawmakers trillions of dollars apart.
The senators returned on Tuesday from their annual summer recess. And The New York Times noted Senate Republican leaders are hoping to unite their caucus behind a scaled-back aid proposal. The plan would reinstate federal unemployment benefits at $300 a week and would allot $105 billion for schools and funds for testing and the Postal Service.
The Republican bill would cost between $500 billion and $700 billion. The proposal is less than the $1 trillion measure Senate Republicans introduced in July. And it is considerably less than the $3 trillion legislation the Democrats passed in the House.
Democrats want to fully restore the $600 unemployment benefits and have vowed not to consider any proposal below $2.2 trillion.
A vote advancing the Republican measure could come this week, but Democrats are expected to block it, according to the Times.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has called the bill "emaciated" and urged Democrats to push for "another comprehensive, bipartisan bill that meets the moment facing our nation."
The Times noted both Republicans and Democrats are faced with a fraught political situation with less than two months to go before the November election and millions still unemployed.
Meanwhile, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow on Friday said the U.S. can survive until the end of the year without another round of pandemic aid, if need be.
"Look, we can live with it," he told Bloomberg TV. "We can absolutely live with it."
Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
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