参议院多数党领袖米奇·麦康奈尔提出了一个新的冠状病毒参议院共和党领导人和白宫似乎已经克服了他们的分歧后，参议院提出了救助计划。
“我希望这一强有力的提议能引起真正的反应，而不是党派间的不公平竞争。”麦康奈尔(McConnell)周一下午在一次公开演讲中表示:“这不是可预测的、老掉牙的陈词滥调，就好像现在是普通时期，国家可以承受普通的政治。”
一位知情的资深人士向美国广播公司证实，民主党人已经不同意共和党人的计划，该计划包括200美元的统一税率，短期延长联邦失业福利，而不是每周600美元，因为各州的制度要适应任何联邦福利的变化还需要时间。
在麦康奈尔的发言结束后，参议院少数党领袖查克·舒默(Chuck Schumer)批评共和党在国会通过首个冠状病毒救助计划后的几个月里“浪费了宝贵的时间”，称自那以来“白宫和参议院的共和党人无法齐心协力。”
舒默说:“在民主党在众议院通过一项全面的法案10周之后，参议院的共和党人甚至不能就在墙上扔什么东西达成一致。”他还补充说，对周一提出的计划的支持还不清楚。“我们不仅不知道总统是否支持这些提议，我们甚至不知道参议院共和党人是否完全支持。”
得克萨斯州共和党参议员特德·克鲁兹对记者说，麦康奈尔大学即将遭遇对“治愈创伤法案”的“重大阻力”——他说，重点不应该放在紧急援助上，而应该放在经济复苏上。
克鲁兹说:“我继续有严重的关切，当然是在成本方面，因为我们的赤字和债务正在失控。”“但我也担心这项立法的重点是错误的。我们的首要任务和目标应该是重启经济。这不应该是又一个紧急救助法案。在危机最严重的时候，我们有几项旨在提供紧急救助的法案。”
熟悉此事的共和党消息人士周一晚些时候告诉美国广播公司新闻，参议院共和党会议可能有多达一半的人投票反对该法案。
该提案是旨在应对由美国经济衰退引发的经济后果的更广泛法案的一部分冠状病毒大流行。
财政部长史蒂文·姆努钦和白宫办公厅主任马克·梅多斯在国会山度过了一个周末，与参议院共和党领导层一起研究该提案的细节。
“我们原则上已经达成一致，”梅多斯周日晚些时候告诉记者，他说工作人员仍在对该提案进行最后的润色。“我们有一些修改，我们正在寻找的清晰度，但我们已经得到了这些少数希望将在未来一个小时左右解决。”
这项1万亿美元的计划预计将把联邦失业救济金减少到平均每周200美元左右，相当于一名工人失业前工资的70%。它还将为学校提供1050亿美元，其中700亿美元将提供给K-12学校，更多的将提供给重新开放的学校;这将为病毒测试和追踪增加160亿美元;它将提供另一轮受欢迎的刺激检查;它将包括针对小企业的第二轮、更有针对性的可宽恕贷款。它将为企业提供税收抵免，以帮助重新招聘和重新开业。
该法案还包括政府要求拨款17.5亿美元用于新的联邦调查局总部。
记者问参议院拨款委员会主席理查·谢尔比，总部的建设与冠状病毒有什么关系，他说，“这是个好问题。”
麦康奈尔还被问及拨款问题，他似乎不知道这笔拨款。
“我不确定是不是这样，是吗?”他回应说，这促使一名工作人员向参议员确认这是在立法中。“我认为这是一个起点。没有民主党，我们无法在参议院通过一项法案，众议院显然也无法通过，因此每项法案都必须从某个地方开始。”
后来，当再次被问及这项规定时，麦康奈尔说，“关于这项建议，显然我们必须与政府达成协议才能开始，他们必须回答为什么坚持这项规定的问题。你得问他们为什么坚持要包括在内。"
共和党冠状病毒提案公布后，众议院议长南希·佩洛西正在主持与舒默、梅多斯和姆努钦的会议，一名助手告诉美国广播公司新闻。
唐纳德·特朗普总统坚持削减工资税，这导致了一些延误，但在遭到许多共和党人和民主党人的反对后，这一提议被放弃了。Mnuchin在周末承认，与计划中的对中等收入美国人的第二轮直接支付不同，税收激励并没有提供立即的缓解。同样，政府屈服了，试图将测试、追踪和主要的联邦项目的任何新的资金归零健康参与抗击流行病的机构。
2020年7月23日，星期四，华盛顿，白宫办公厅主任马克·梅多斯在国会大厦对记者讲话。
经过数周的拖延，白宫官员表现出了一种新的紧迫感，梅多斯提出了一种零敲碎打的方法，这种方法可能会加速一些即将到期的福利——比如针对失业者的福利——而不会解决其他福利，比如本周末到期的暂停驱逐令。但是到目前为止，这种渐进的方法已经被佩洛西拒绝了。
“老实说，我认为我们能够提供失业保险;也许是一个保留信贷，以防止人们被取代或带回到工作场所;帮助我们的学校。”“如果我们能做到这一点，再加上责任保护，或许我们可以提出这一点，让它获得通过，然后我们可以在未来几周内就法案的其余部分进行谈判。”
佩洛西在接受哥伦比亚广播公司(CBS)采访时谈到即将到期的联邦援助时表示:“他们现在就来，我们已经准备了两个月零十天。”
众议院在5月份通过了一项3万亿美元的冠状病毒援助法案，其中包括对州和地方政府、学校和病毒检测的额外援助，但没有被参议院采纳。
2020年7月24日，星期五，加州众议院议长南希·佩洛西在华盛顿国会山举行的新闻发布会上，就延长联邦失业救济金问题发表讲话。
据梅多斯和共和党领导助手称，预计麦康奈尔将在周一下午的参议院发言中公布共和党的新提案，之后将与民主党展开认真的谈判。
但双方仍存在很大分歧。上周末，麦康奈尔明确表示，解决问题需要时间——即使失业救济和暂停驱逐的最后期限即将到期。
麦康奈尔说:“希望在接下来的两到三个星期里，我们能够聚在一起，通过一些我们可以送到众议院和总统签字。”
佩洛西没有排除减少联邦失业救济金的可能性，但她坚持认为国会不能在没有达成一致的情况下，在计划已久的8月休会期间离开。
佩洛西在接受哥伦比亚广播公司《面向全国》采访时说:“没有它我们就无法回家。”
《美国广播公司新闻》的马里亚姆·汗、巴格斯·西格尔和利比·凯瑟对此报道有所贡献。
这份报告刊登在2020年7月27日星期一的美国广播公司每日新闻播客“从这里开始”中。
“从这里开始”在20分钟内提供了一个简单的一天的头条新闻。每周日免费收听苹果播客,谷歌播客,Spotify，该美国广播公司新闻应用或者无论你在哪里得到播客。
Senate GOP, White House propose cutting $600 unemployment checks to $200 in coronavirus relief plan
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell introduced a newcoronavirusrelief plan on the Senate floor after Senate Republican leaders and the White House appear to have overcome their differences.
"I hope this strong proposal will occasion a real response, not partisan cheap shots. Not the predictable, tired old rhetoric as though these were ordinary times, and the nation could afford ordinary politics," McConnell said Monday afternoon in a floor speech.
But Democrats already don't agree with the Republicans' plan, which includes a $200 flat-rate, short-term extension to federal unemployment benefits as opposed to $600 a week, a senior source familiar with the matter confirmed to ABC News, since it will take time before states' systems can shift to accommodate any federal benefit changes.
Following McConnell's floor speech, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer criticized the Republican Party for "wasting precious time" in the months since Congress passed its first coronavirus relief package, arguing "the White House and Senate Republicans couldn't get their act together" in the time since.
"Ten weeks after Democrats passed a comprehensive bill through the House, Senate Republicans couldn't even agree on what to throw in on the wall," Schumer said, adding that support for the plan presented Monday is still not clear. "Not only do we not know if the president supports any of these proposals, we don't even know if Senate Republicans fully support."
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, told reporters that McConnell is about to encounter "significant resistance" to the HEALS Act --- saying the focus shouldn't be on emergency help, but on economic recovery.
"I continue to have serious concerns, certainly at the cost, as our deficits and debt are spiraling out of control," Cruz said. "But I also have concerns that the focus of this legislation is wrong. Our priority, our objective should be restarting the economy. This shouldn't be yet another emergency relief bill. We had several bills at the height of the crisis that were designed to be emergency relief bills."
Republican sources familiar with the matter told ABC News later Monday that there could be as much as half the Senate GOP conference voting against the bill.
The proposal comes as part of a broader bill aimed at handling economic fallout caused by thecoronaviruspandemic.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows spent the weekend on Capitol Hill working through details of the proposal with Senate GOP leadership staff.
"We've got an agreement in principle," Meadows told reporters late Sunday, saying that staff was still putting the finishing touches on the proposal. "We have a few modifications that we're looking for clarity on, but we've gotten those down to a handful that hopefully will be resolved in the next hour or so."
The $1 trillion plan is expected to reduce the federal unemployment benefit to about $200 per week, on average, or 70% of the wages a worker earned before ending up jobless. It would also provide $105 billion for schools, $70 billion of which would go to K-12 institutions with more going to schools that reopen; it would give $16 billion more for virus testing and tracing; it would provide another round of popular stimulus checks; it would include a second, more targeted round of forgivable loans from the Paycheck Protection Program for small businesses; and it would provide tax credits for businesses to help with rehiring and reopening.
The bill also includes an administration request for $1.75 billion to be appropriated for a new FBI headquarters.
Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Sen. Richard Shelby was asked by reporters what the headquarters construction has to do with the coronavirus and he said, "That's a good question."
McConnell was also asked about the appropriation and he appeared to be unaware of its inclusion.
"I'm not sure that it is, is it?" he said in response, prompting a staffer to confirm to the senator that it is in the legislation. "I think this is a starting place. We can't pass a bill in the Senate without the Democrats, nor obviously can it pass the House, so every bill has to start somewhere."
Later, when asked again about the provision, McConnell said, ""In regard to that proposal obviously we had to have an agreement with the administration in order to get started and they'll have to answer the question on why they insisted on that provision. You'll have to ask them why they insisted that be included."
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was hosting a meeting with Schumer, Meadows and Mnuchin, an aide told ABC News, following the release of the GOP coronavirus proposal.
President Donald Trump had insisted on a payroll tax cut, which caused some delay, but after the pitch met with opposition from many Republicans and Democrats alike, it was dropped. Mnuchin acknowledged over the weekend that the tax incentive did not provide immediate relief, unlike the planned second round of direct payments to Americans with modest incomes. Likewise, the administration caved on an effort to zero out any new funding for testing, tracing and the major federalhealthagencies involved in fighting the pandemic.
White House officials have shown a new sense of urgency after weeks of delay, with Meadows pitching a piecemeal approach that might speed some benefits -- like those for the jobless -- that are about to expire, while not addressing others, like the moratorium on evictions that expired this weekend. But to date, the incremental approach has been rejected by Pelosi.
"Honestly, I see us being able to provide unemployment insurance; maybe a retention credit to keep people from being displaced or brought back into the workplace; helping with our schools," Meadows said. "If we can do that, along with liability protection, perhaps we put that forward, get that passed, and we can negotiate on the rest of the bill in the weeks to come."
"For them to come now, when we're right on the brink," Pelosi said in a CBS interview, referring to expiring federal assistance, "we have been ready for two months and 10 days."
The House passed a $3 trillion coronavirus aid bill in May that included additional aid for state and local governments, schools and virus testing, but it was not taken up by the Senate.
McConnell was expected to unveil the new GOP proposal in a Senate floor speech Monday afternoon, according to Meadows and GOP leadership aides, after which negotiations with Democrats can begin in earnest.
But the two sides remain far apart, and over the weekend, McConnell made it clear that a resolution will take time -- even with deadlines for jobless benefits and a moratorium on evictions expiring.
"Hopefully in the next two to three weeks we'll be able to come together and pass something that we can send over to the House and down to the president for signature," McConnell said.
Pelosi did not rule out reducing the federal unemployment benefit, but she was adamant that Congress cannot leave on its long-planned August recess without an agreement.
"We can't go home without it," Pelosi told CBS' Face the Nation.
ABC News' Mariam Khan, Benjamin Siegel and Libby Cathey contributed to this report.
This report was featured in the Monday, July 27, 2020, episode of "Start Here," ABC News' daily news podcast.
"Start Here" offers a straightforward look at the day's top stories in 20 minutes. Listen for free every weekday onApple Podcasts,Google Podcasts,Spotify, theABC News appor wherever you get your podcasts.
