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Republican Relief Package Expected This Week

Posted on July 21, 2020

Senate Republicans are expected to introduce a stimulus package within days that would further extend the Paycheck Protection Program and provide tax incentives for small businesses.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said July 20 that Republicans will be offering a starting point for additional pandemic response legislation “hopefully as soon as this week.”

“It will take good-faith bipartisan cooperation from our Democratic colleagues to actually make the law,” McConnell said.

McConnell met with President Trump and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin the same day to discuss the package. Mnuchin and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows are expected to meet with Senate Republicans on July 21, and Mnuchin is expected to meet the same day with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., to discuss the legislation.

Mnuchin told reporters that he backs proposals that would provide tax credits for the purchase of personal protective equipment by businesses to keep their staff safe.

While the measure is expected to make some changes to the tax law, Republicans are opposed to extending the supercharged unemployment benefits that are scheduled to expire at the end of the month, and they want to provide liability protection for businesses that open. “We don’t need an epidemic of lawsuits,” McConnell said.

Republicans said they will tackle the legislation like they did the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act (P.L. 116-136) and work with Democrats and the White House to secure enough votes for the measure to pass in both chambers. 

But Democrats have warned Republicans that they will not entertain some measures, including a payroll tax holiday and liability protection. Schumer told his colleagues in a letter to stand firm during the negotiations, highlighting the importance of providing aid to states and unemployment benefits. “Workers and families, not special interests, should be our main focus,” Schumer said in the letter.

Democrats want part of the Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions Act (H.R. 6800) incorporated into the package, including another round of stimulus checks to taxpayers. They have said the $1 trillion maximum limit suggested by McConnell is too little to provide the country and taxpayers with the necessary economic relief.

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