[NYAPRS Enews] RC, CNN: More Details on House Opening Bid on COVID 5 Deal, Includes $6k per Family Proposal

Wed May 13 09:05:51 EDT 2020

NYAPRS Note: Here are more details about the House's opening bid to negotiate with the GOP Senate and While House for a 5th COVID-19 aid bill. It is expected that the 3 sides will begin informal discussions around the bill prior to the Senate's likely return after Memorial Day.

Democrats' $3 Trillion Virus Aid Bill Back On For House Vote Friday
By David Lerman<https://www.rollcall.com/author/david-lerman/> and Lindsey McPherson<https://www.rollcall.com/author/lindsey-mcpherson/>  Roll Call  May 12, 2020

The mammoth COVID-19 relief package House Democrats unveiled Tuesday is expected to come up for a vote Friday after all, according to a letter distributed by Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office.

"The staggering scale of this crisis demands extraordinary urgency, and therefore, the House will be proceeding with our vote on the [relief bill] on Friday," several House committee leaders wrote in the letter, sent to Democratic lawmakers late Tuesday.

The $3 trillion-plus measure had been running into some turbulence with the party's left flank, casting doubt on party leadership's plans for a Friday vote.

The new legislation would be the biggest federal response so far to the health and economic emergency. While the package contains numerous party priorities that Democrats have been pushing for months, some rank-and-file lawmakers were concerned about provisions that didn't make the cut.

Reps. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., and Mark Pocan, D-Wis., who co-chair the Congressional Progressive Caucus, sent a letter Tuesday to House leaders asking them to push the scheduled Friday vote to next week. A senior Democratic aide left open the possibility of a delay earlier Tuesday evening, telling CQ Roll Call that "we will vote on it when we have the votes."

The sweeping legislation would provide another round of cash payments to most families, more loans to businesses, housing assistance, medical research funding, an extension of expanded unemployment insurance benefits, tax breaks and more. Aid to cash-strapped states and local governments alone could amount to about $1 trillion.

The bill is likely to serve as the opening bid from Democrats in what could be protracted negotiations with the GOP-controlled Senate and White House on a compromise measure.

But first, Democratic leaders will have to convince enough members of their own party to back the bill despite the exclusion of provisions large swaths of members sought, such as a paycheck guarantee for workers and automatic stabilizers to keep relief programs running.

"As we read the more than 1800-page legislation, we must have more time to determine what is in and what is not in this legislation, as well as a conversation about the bill as a caucus," Jayapal and Pocan said in their letter, obtained by CQ Roll Call. They asked for a full Democratic Caucus meeting to discuss the package and "any amendments that might be needed to ensure that it truly reflects the priorities and the work of the entire caucus."

Republicans have sought to pump the brakes on additional aid, while expressing concern over rising red ink. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy called the Democrats' bill a "liberal wishlist that has no chance of becoming law" and accused the House majority of stacking the bill with provisions that have nothing to do with COVID-19.

Pelosi, however, defended the package as targeted to the pandemic. She told CNN on Tuesday that she gets "a little heat" from Democrats when their priorities are left out. But Pelosi noted that the cost would be "endless" if all of her party's demands were included in the bill, as Republicans have charged.

Democrats said they felt compelled to push forward with a new aid package as quickly as possible. "There are millions and millions and millions in America that see the urgency of the crisis that confronts them and are expecting us to act to continue to help them," House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer, D-Md., told reporters Tuesday.

With a price tag exceeding $3 trillion, the package would easily dwarf the roughly $2 trillion measure signed into law in March.

Among the new bill's major elements, according to a Democratic summary:

  *   State and local aid. Almost $916 billion in direct aid would be provided to make up for lost revenues suffered by states and local governments from the economic shutdown.
  *   Food assistance. About $10 billion would be used to cover increased participation in the food stamps program and to expand benefit levels by 15 percent.
  *   Housing. The bill proposes $75 billion to help homeowners unable to make mortgage payments or pay property taxes and utilities. And it would provide $100 billion in rental assistance for low-income tenants.
  *   Broadband. About $5.5 billion would go to emergency home internet connections and the creation of Wi-Fi hot spots for broadband service.
  *   Postal Service. $25 billion would be available to make up for lost Postal Service revenue from the pandemic.
  *   Education. More than $100 billion would be used for education, mostly for a State Fiscal Stabilization Fund to help states deal with the strain from shuttered schools.
  *   Public health fund. $100 billion for hospitals and other health care providers for pandemic-related costs, and $75 billion for virus testing.
  *   Medicaid. States would get a boost in federal Medicaid funding, with the federal matching share increased by 14 percentage points.
  *   Health insurance. Workers who are laid off or furloughed could maintain their employer's health coverage through the COBRA program with full premium subsidies for about nine months.
  *   Unemployment insurance. An expanded benefit of $600 per week, set to expire in August, would be extended through Jan. 31, 2021.
  *   Hazard pay. A $200 billion "Heroes Fund" would give grants to employers to provide premium pay for "essential" workers.
  *   Rebate checks. Taxpayers would receive another round of direct payments of up to $1,200 per adult and $1,200 per dependent for up to three dependents. The credit begins phasing out after $75,000 of adjusted gross income, as in the previous payment round.
  *   Tax relief. The $10,000 limit on deductions for state and local taxes would be lifted for the 2020 and 2021 tax years. And an employee retention tax credit would be made more generous by covering the reimbursement costs of 80 percent of wages instead of 50 percent.
  *   Election security. $3.6 billion in state grants to prepare for elections during the pandemic.
  *   Small-business loans. The Paycheck Protection Program would be made more flexible by extending loan forgiveness periods and removing a restriction on how much loan money must be spent on payroll.
But the bill is likely getting nowhere in the Republican-controlled Senate, at least for the time being. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell attacked the bill as a nonstarter even before it was introduced.
https://www.rollcall.com/2020/05/12/house-democrats-3-trillion-virus-aid-bill-on-track-for-friday-vote/?utm_source=morningheadlines&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_content=05/13/2020
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Democratic Proposal Includes New Stimulus Payments Of Up To $6,000 For Families

By Tami Luhby<https://www.cnn.com/profiles/tami-luhby>, CNN  May 12, 2020

(CNN)House Democrats want to send Americans a second round of stimulus checks<https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/14/politics/get-my-payment-stimulus-checks-irs/index.html> worth up to $6,000 per family as part of the $3 trillion coronavirus relief package<https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/12/politics/3-trillion-aid-package-democrats-house/index.html> they rolled out Tuesday -- the largest in history.

Like the first round of payments approved by Congress in March, new proposal calls for giving $1,200 to those earning up to $75,000 a year and $2,400 to couples without dependents making double that before phasing out. But it would be far more generous to many families with children, providing $1,200 per dependent up to a maximum of three dependents. The earlier stimulus package<https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/27/politics/stimulus-check-calculator/index.html>, which is still in the process of being distributed, gave $500 for each qualifying child under age 17.

Americans may not see these new, more generous payments, however. Senate Republican leaders have already said the new bill is dead on arrival, arguing that another round of emergency funding is not yet needed as states begin to reopen.

The Democratic bill would also extend the historic enhancement of unemployment benefits included in the March legislation. It calls for continuing the weekly $600 federal payment <https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/25/politics/senate-stimulus-unemployment-benefits-coronavirus/index.html> through January, instead of through July.

It would also maintain benefits for the self-employed, independent contractors, gig workers<https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/10/politics/independent-contractors-unemployment-benefits-wait/index.html> and certain people affected by coronavirus through March, instead of the end of December. Likewise, it would continue the additional 13 weeks of payments through March.

Named "The Heroes Act," the legislation would establish a $200 billion fund to provide hazard pay to essential workers who have remained on the job during the pandemic -- a measure that was not included in the four prior relief packages.

The House proposal would also funnel more money into efforts that Congress has supported in previous legislation.

It would send nearly $1 trillion to state, local, territorial and tribal governments, which are facing big budget gaps<https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/23/politics/state-city-budget-cuts-covid/index.html> as their tax revenues plummet amid the shutdowns of non-essential businesses and the loss of millions of jobs.

And it would provide another $75 billion for coronavirus testing<https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/08/health/coronavirus-testing-falls-short/index.html>, contact tracing and isolation measures. Plus, it calls for Americans who fall ill with coronavirus to get free treatment.

Democratic lawmakers also want to bolster the nation's safety net by increasing the maximum food stamp benefit by 15%, a provision they could not get into prior packages, and providing additional funding for nutrition programs for children.

They would also allocate $175 billion to help renters and homeowners and offer subsidies to help Americans who lose their employer-provided health insurance keep their coverage.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/12/politics/second-stimulus-check-proposal-democrats/index.html?utm_term=1589364631807625abff14350&utm_source=Five+Things+for+Wednesday%2C+May+13%2C+2020&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=206155_1589364631812&bt_ee=BPNEYocZ4rg7gmS8YVpJHFQ4WSU8Sp084flwMLa3k78D8S398cZNZCvAYbwGKGzy&bt_ts=1589364631812

Harvey Rosenthal
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Office: 518-436-0008; C: 518-527-0564
harveyr at nyaprs.org<mailto:harveyr at nyaprs.org>
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