BREAKING: Democrats release new $2.2trillion COVID package including second round of stimulus checks, $600 in extra unemployment and $436billion for state and local governments
- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi spoke with Treasury Secretary Mnuchin Monday
- ‘The two agreed to speak again tomorrow morning’, according to her aide
- The scaled back package will ‘protect lives, livelihoods, and the life of our democracy over the coming months’ Pelosi told her fellow Democrats
- It includes weekly $600 federal unemployment payments through next January and a second stimulus check of $1,200 per taxpayer and $500 per dependent
- The package also includes $75 billion for coronavirus testing
The Democrats on Monday released a new $2.2trillion COVID package, including a second round of stimulus checks, $600 in extra unemployment and $436billion for state and local governments.
The scaled back proposal will ‘protect lives, livelihoods, and the life of our democracy over the coming months’ Pelosi told her fellow Democrats.
It includes weekly $600 federal unemployment payments through next January, a second stimulus check of $1,200 per taxpayer and $500 per dependent and $75 billion for coronavirus testing.
Talks have stalled between the Republicans and Democrats following the $3 trillion HEROES Act, passed by the House in May.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi spoke with Treasury Secretary Mnuchin Monday; the two agreed to speak again Tuesday, according to her aide.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a statement: ‘It has been more than four months since House Democrats sent the GOP Senate $3.4 trillion in desperately needed coronavirus relief grounded in science and data, and Leader McConnell hit the pause button’
The package also has $436 billion to help pay for vital workers like first responders and health workers ‘who keep us safe and are in danger of losing their jobs’.
In a statement Pelosi said: ‘It has been more than four months since House Democrats sent the GOP Senate $3.4 trillion in desperately needed coronavirus relief grounded in science and data, and Leader McConnell hit the pause button.
‘In our negotiations with the White House since then, Democrats offered to come down a trillion dollars if Republicans would come up a trillion dollars. T
‘Then, we offered to come down $200 billion more, even as the health and economic crisis has worsened and the needs have only grown.’
Pelosi’s deputy chief of staff, Drew Hammill, tweeted: ‘Speaker Pelosi and Secretary Mnuchin spoke at 6:30 p.m. tonight via phone after House Democrats introduced an updated version of the Heroes Act.
‘The two agreed to speak again tomorrow morning.’
In July Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s $1 trillion bill was dismissed by the Democrats as ‘half-hearted, half-baked legislative proposal’.
Pelosi said: ‘Democrats are making good on our promise to compromise with this updated bill.’