Senate Democrats are touting the GOP division over their own coronavirus relief package, but Democratic lawmakers are not all in lockstep on the next round of aid, either.
Democrats also aren’t in agreement when it comes to negotiating with the GOP on the next round of federal unemployment benefits.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, on Tuesday, suggested in a televised news interview that there is some wiggle room on the party’s demand that the next coronavirus package extend the expansion of federal unemployment benefits at the current $600-per-week level. The Democratic plan would call for those weekly benefits to continue until Jan. 31, 2021.
“Look, it’s not $600 or bust,” Hoyer said on CNN, adding that Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters last week, “We don’t have red lines, we have values.”
Other Democratic leaders publicly disputed Hoyer’s statement hours later.
“We don’t believe that,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat and close ally of Pelosi.
“I don’t know what Speaker Hoyer said,” Schumer said, accidentally calling the Maryland Democrat the speaker. “But $600 we believe … should be extended until Jan. 31. That $600 has kept millions of people out of poverty, millions of people in their homes, millions of people feeding their families, and it, along with PPE, is the No. 1 reason the economy is beginning to creep back up because consumer spending is going up, and that’s because of money in people’s pockets. We believe we keep it.”
Hoyer during the CNN interview said he disagreed with the GOP’s plan to reduce the weekly payment to $200 but also appeared to side with Republicans who believe the $600 weekly payment provides a disincentive for workers to return to jobs because in many cases it pays more than their regular salaries.
“I think that’s an argument that has some validity to it,” Hoyer said. “And we ought to deal with that. And there is a way to deal with that, but not this way, not cold turkey.”
Some kind of compromise is likely necessary because Republicans so broadly agree the $600 weekly payment should be reduced to encourage people to return to work.
Republicans met behind closed doors Tuesday to discuss the GOP package unveiled on Tuesday. Many Republicans disagree on the $1 trillion price tag, while others want to ensure unemployment benefits do not get cut off under a Republican proposal to tie payments to antiquated state systems.
Schumer described the GOP conference as “disorganized and disoriented.”
