After McConnell Sent the Senate Home, Republicans Are Holding Up Coronavirus Relief Package

“It’s Also Unclear How Swiftly The Senate Will Act” This Week, As Some Top GOP Senators Threaten To Oppose The Bipartisan Bill

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s decision to send the Senate home and leave Washington for a long weekend before finalizing the emergency coronavirus relief package is causing days of delays in the middle of a national emergency. The Republican-controlled Senate has still “not yet scheduled a vote for the coronavirus relief bill” despite the urgency of this public health crisis. It’s “unclear how swiftly the Senate will act” — and the GOP caucus reportedly won’t decide until Tuesday, “when Senate Republicans meet for lunch.”

As hardworking families across the country deal with increasing economic uncertainty and challenges like missing work, schools closing, and medical expenses, there is zero excuse for the lack of action from Senate Republicans.

“After sending the Senate home, Mitch McConnell and Republicans are further delaying an immediate vote on the bipartisan coronavirus relief package that includes free testing, paid sick leave, enhanced unemployment insurance and food assistance,” said DSCC spokeswoman Lauren Passalacqua. “Any delay is irresponsible and reflects the out-of-touch priorities of the Republican majority.”

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

POLITICO: Senate scrambles on coronavirus package as U.S. begins to shut down

• The Senate will return to Washington Monday to work on a multi-billion dollar coronavirus package as the number of cases across the country continues to grow, the Trump administration struggles to coordinate its response and Wall Street slides further into bear territory.

• The Senate is expected to take up this week the massive bipartisan emergency package from the House to address the pandemic… But much uncertainty remains over timing and logistics, despite mounting public pressure and the stock market taking a serious hit as the global pandemic continues to spread and daily life in the U.S. is severely disrupted.

• It’s also unclear how swiftly the Senate will act… Mnuchin is expected to attend the Senate Republican lunch Tuesday — suggesting that he may need to sell the deal to some GOP members.

• Some Republicans are already expressing doubt that the Senate will approve the House package without changes. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) predicted Monday on “Fox & Friends” that the House coronavirus bill as written will not pass the Senate, raising questions about its paid sick leave provisions.

• “It doesn’t go far enough and it doesn’t go fast enough,” Cotton said. “Most of the measures in this bill are something that the senators will support, I believe. … But we worry that the bill setting up a new and complicated system relying on businesses giving paid sick leave and then getting a refundable tax credit that won’t move quickly enough and could put pressure on those businesses to lay workers off.”

• Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said in a statement that he hopes the Senate “will approach this with a level head and pass a bill that does more good than harm — or, if it won’t, pass nothing at all.”

• Meanwhile Senate Democrats spent the weekend criticizing McConnell for sending the Senate home Thursday, one day before House Democrats reached a deal with the Trump administration on the emergency package. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) is calling on McConnell to take up the House legislation immediately on Monday, without changes.

• “It was disgraceful that Leader McConnell left town last night … We could have had this done already, but he left,” Schumer said over the weekend in New York.

• Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) urged McConnell to have the Senate pass the House coronavirus package and a short-term FISA extension by unanimous consent, given the recommendations from health officials to practice social distancing.

• “Senators and staff are working to serve their states locally as best they can, and with unanimous consent for these measures there is no valid reason to force extra travel this week,” Durbin said. “Given the fact that we can and should pass the Coronavirus package, and any subsequent recommended bipartisan fixes to it, by UC immediately, your decision to call us back to Washington this week is unnecessary.”

• The confusion about when the Senate will act on the legislative package comes as the number of coronavirus cases in the United States jumped to more than 3,500 over the weekend. And on Sunday, the Centers for Disease Control recommended Americans cancel or postpone gatherings of 50 or more people for eight weeks.

CNBC: The Senate has not yet scheduled a vote for the coronavirus relief bill already passed by the House

• Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has yet to schedule a Senate vote to pass the country’s second emergency coronavirus deal after the House passed the package early Saturday morning.

• The next vote the Republican led-Senate has scheduled is over the renewal of national security surveillance law, Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA. That is scheduled for Monday at 5:30 p.m.

• The Democrat-led house last week passed the second round of legislation, which was aimed at helping workers and individuals struggling to make it through the crisis. Among the provisions agreed to between Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and House speaker Nancy Pelosi was increased unemployment insurance and paid sick leave.

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