WASHINGTON–Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who won reelection earlier this week, said he believes an economic stimulus bill should be completed by Congress before the end of the year and will be the focus when the Senate resumes work next week.
McConnell also said that state and local aid — a longtime Democratic demand — could be part of the legislation, according to the Washington Post.
“We need another rescue package. The Senate goes back into session next Monday. Hopefully the partisan passions that prevented us from doing another rescue package will subside with the election,” said McConnell during a news conference. “And I think we need to do it and I think we need to do it before the end of the year. It’s a possibility we will do more for state and local governments.”
The Post noted McConnell’s comments could open the door to a new phase in economic relief talks that have sputtered off and on for months. Most recently the key players have been House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who spent many hours negotiating around an approximately $2 trillion package that McConnell and Senate Republicans viewed as too costly. Those talks have since fallen apart.
An earlier package McConnell had sought to advance in the Senate did not include the $1,200 stimulus checks to working Americans that had been included in the earlier package passed by Congress. To date, approximately $3 trillion in stimulus has been passed by Congress.
‘Job One’
The Post quoted McConnell as observing the coronavirus is not going to go away “until we kill it, so that’s job one. We’ve already allocated an enormous amount of money toward testing, treatment and vaccines. We may need to do more in the next rescue package, because ultimately you got to kill the [virus] before we get back to normal because there’s no other way to get back to normal.”
In the upcoming lame duck session, Congress will also have to deal with a Dec. 11 government shutdown deadline when funding for federal agencies runs out unless lawmakers approve another spending bill.