House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that the House will pass a coronavirus economic package on Friday but didn’t indicate whether it will have the backing of Republicans or the White House.
Pelosi said on Friday outside her office in the Capitol that the three most important parts of this bill are “testing, testing, testing,” for the coronavirus, which the package will provide for free to all Americans, including the uninsured.
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“The American people expect and deserve a coordinated, science-based, and whole-of-government response to keep them and their loved ones safe. A response that puts families first to stimulate the economy,” Pelosi said.
Yet she did not indicate whether she had successfully reached a deal with the White House to send the bill to President Trump’s desk quickly despite intense negotiations over the past few days.
Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin spoke eight times on the phone on Thursday to negotiate a deal, according to Pelosi’s spokesman Drew Hammill. Pelosi said Thursday they were continuing to talk and that she was confident a bill would pass “one way or another.”
The House Democratic measure released on Wednesday, called the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, includes provisions that would entitle workers affected by the coronavirus to paid sick leave and create a new “emergency paid leave” federal benefit for people forced into quarantine.
It also would expand food stamps and unemployment insurance for those affected by the coronavirus and the school and business closures it has caused, as well as aim to provide meals to children who normally get lunch at school.
