Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told Democrats he won’t pass new state and local funding unless it includes legal liability protections for medical workers and business owners operating during the coronavirus.
“We are open to considering another bill,” McConnell told Fox News Tuesday. “But my red line going forward on this bill is we need to provide litigation protection for those who have been on the front lines — hospitals, doctors, nurses. And imagine if you are a businessman thinking about reopening, and you’ve heard that the trial lawyers all over this country are sharpening their pencils, getting ready to sue you, claiming that you didn’t engage in proper social distancing or other issues related to health and safety.”
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McConnell said liability protections are critical to reopening the economy.
“That will be a condition for providing additional assistance to state and local governments,” McConnell told host Neil Cavuto.
The House, run by Democrats, is planning to pass a new massive spending measure that would provide hundreds of billions of dollars in new aid to state and local governments.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, rejected liability protections proposed by the GOP and said there should more protections, not fewer.
“I don’t think at this time of the coronavirus that there’s any interest in having any less protection for our workers,” Pelosi told reporters in a conference call.
