Social distancing among members of Congress during the COVID-19 pandemic is making negotiations for an economic relief package more difficult than usual, Democrats and Republicans concluded.
The practice of social distancing around the Capitol has been enforced since last week, particularly around senators and House members, in an effort to keep staff, press, and other personnel safe from contracting the virus. Yet Sen. Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican, contracted the coronavirus after three House members were infected.
The fast-moving COVID-19 virus is spreading across the country — with upward of 35,000 cases in the United States and at least 570 deaths since Monday afternoon.
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The stock market has continued a downward plunge as Republicans and Democrats have yet to hammer out a stimulus package both sides can agree on in the Senate. For the second day in a row, Democrats did not provide the necessary votes to end debate and advance a coronavirus relief package Republicans were ready to vote on.
As Republican and Democratic senators left the floor, reporters kept their mandated social distance while asking questions, but members of congress are also keeping their distance from one another — and that, they say, is a challenge now.
“Let’s just say the problem with this place is we’re not together enough. Now, this gives us an excuse to really not to be together, and it makes it a little bit harder. So I would like to see us doing more things in a bipartisan way,” Sen. Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat, told the Washington Examiner. “Negotiations have always been hard no matter what because of the social breakdown here. Now that there’s acceptable social distancing, it’s driving us apart.”
Senate Majority Whip John Thune, a South Dakota Republican, agreed, telling the Washington Examiner that negotiations have become more difficult with the social distancing rules.
“It’s a little hard. As you know, everything is pretty close around here — very clubby. So the distancing is certainly is not making it easier.”
