Lawmakers on Friday struggled to finalize a coronavirus aid and government funding deal ahead of a midnight deadline, sparking tensions that could result in a partial government shutdown.
Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, threatened to block fast passage of a stopgap government funding bill after the Republican Party thwarted his attempt to bring up a bill that would provide a new round of stimulus checks.
Republican and Democratic leaders are working on a coronavirus aid package worth roughly $900 billion that would provide a new round of $700 checks to people, supplemental jobless pay, and money to bail out small businesses.
“It’s coming together,” Senate Majority Whip John Thune, a South Dakota Republican, told reporters Thursday.
The deal has stalled over several provisions, including one that would narrow special lending authority provided to the Federal Reserve in response to the coronavirus pandemic. The GOP said Democrats are attempting to add new state and local funding, which has also slowed a deal.
The infighting occurred hours ahead of a midnight deadline for government funding.
Lawmakers hope to bundle fiscal year 2021 government spending with the aid package, but they may be forced today to pass another brief stopgap bill, called a continuing resolution, while the aid package deal is negotiated.
Hawley told reporters in the Capitol that he would object to fast passage of the temporary spending resolution until he’s assured that stimulus checks will be in the virus package. The move could result in a brief, partial government shutdown.
“I want assurances that direct assistance is in this package, and if it is not, I will not agree to a CR,” Hawley said.
Hawley said lawmakers have been left in the dark about the state of the negotiations, which are taking place solely among top leaders in both chambers.
“I just think that we need to know what’s going on … and currently, we have absolutely no idea,” Hawley said.
Democratic leaders blamed the GOP for holding up the virus aid package over a provision that they believe would limit the Biden administration by restricting the Fed’s lending authority.
An amendment written by Sen. Pat Toomey, a Pennsylvania Republican, would limit the Fed’s emergency lending powers, which were expanded in a coronavirus aid package that Congress passed earlier this year. Democrats called the powers “a slush fund” under the Trump administration.
With President-elect Joe Biden on the way in, the GOP wants the Fed’s powers retracted, arguing that the authority was meant to be temporary.
“The language Senate Republicans are advocating for affects a very narrow universe of lending facilities and is emphatically not a broad overhaul of the Federal Reserve’s emergency lending authority,” Toomey said Friday.
Thune said lawmakers could use the weekend to draft legislation, followed by a vote Sunday or Monday, but leaders have not made a decision.
