On Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who recently won his re-election bid, stated a new economic stimulus bill before the end of the year is of utmost priority. He said in a news conference in Kentucky that another pandemic relief package would be the focus this upcoming week.
What We Know:
- This comes after weeks of talk that state and local aid, a frequent topic of discussion by Democrats in the White House, would be included in this new bill. “As I’ve said repeatedly in the last few months, we need another rescue package,” said McConnell on Wednesday.
“Hopefully, the partisan passions that prevented us from doing another rescue package will subside with the election. And I think we need to do it and I think we need to do it before the end of the year,” he continued.
- As far as the race looks Wednesday, it seems that Republicans will most likely hold a majority in the Senate. McConnell paid little mind to the current standings and opted to tread cautiously, while at the same time still pointing out many close contests in the few remaining key states.
- Moreover to Democrats, they won the race in Colorado and are leading in Arizona as of late, but it might not be enough to achieve a majority. According to NBC News projections, it’s likely Democrats will keep the House of Representatives.
- McConnell’s remarks may end up reawakening negotiations between both parties after it’s appeared to go nowhere for months now. His comments come when the U.S confirmed the second-highest daily jump of 91,500 since the pandemic began, according to Johns Hopkins. Over 230,000 Americans have died.
- About a month or so leading up to Election Day, McConnell noted that the previously proposed $2 trillion packages negotiated between Mnuchin and Pelosi are still at risk of not receiving much support or that it could end up being too expensive to push through.
“The Speaker laid out a $2.5 trillion package with all kinds of things that I felt were simply unrelated to the subject,” the majority leader said Wednesday. “I laid on the Senate floor not once, but twice, half a trillion dollars … targeting the school situation, the need to replenish PPP small loan program.”
- Another earlier effort by McConnell this year aimed to single-handedly advance negotiations with a much smaller bill. It, unfortunately, lacked fiscal support from both state and local governments. The result saw a lack of another round of $1,200 stimulus checks for most Americans.
That attempt was blocked by Senate Democrats, over the reasoning that it didn’t have enough relief. Other Republicans agreed that the bill was still too expensive. As it stands now, Congress has yet to introduce any new substantial bill worth of discussion and much less passing since the spring.
