参议员们周二带着一系列政治议题回到华盛顿有争议的目标就像2020年一样选举季节加速到高速档。
而僵局仍在继续在另一项新冠肺炎救助计划中，其他立法重点——主要是避免政府关门的临时政府拨款法案——也显得很重要。
议员们在这个问题上分歧很大冠状病毒支出，面临着巨大的时间危机，在他们离开10月去关注11月的选举之前，只有两周的时间来打破僵局。
参议院休会期间，多数党领袖米奇·麦康奈尔(Mitch McConnell)在肯塔基州附近的新闻发布会上，为政治上的艰难回归奠定了基础，指出即将到来的选举是国会未能找到共同点的原因冠状病毒八月初从华盛顿出走之前的救济。
麦康奈尔在周三的一个地方站说:“遗憾的是，随着我们离选举越来越近，两党合作的程度已经下降。”“我不能肯定地告诉你，我们是否会得到另一个救援计划。”
曼德尔·颜/法新社，通过盖蒂图像，文件
在这张2020年8月4日的档案照片中，参议院多数党领袖米奇·麦康奈尔在DC国会大厦哈特参议院办公大楼出席参议院共和党午餐会后发表讲话。
在政府与众议院议长南希·佩洛西和参议院少数党领袖查克·舒默数周的谈判失败后，参议院共和党人现在正寻求推进一项新的新冠肺炎救助立法，这是他们最初的1万亿美元健康、经济援助、责任保护和学校法案的精简版。
尽管《治愈法案》步履维艰——未能获得半数以上共和党会议成员的支持——但共和党领导层希望新的“瘦子”提案将吸引至少51张共和党选票，这是一份多数人的支持声明，可能有助于麦康奈尔的两党谈判。
预计新的5000亿美元提案不会吸引民主党的支持，其中包括削减联邦失业保险福利、病毒治疗和追踪、疫苗、债务保护以及对学校和小企业的援助。
“我们有一个重点突出、目标明确的解决方案，我们希望众议院能够通过，”共和党领导层成员、参议员约翰·巴拉索(John Barrasso)周二对记者表示。他还补充说，“我们的目标是，回来投票支持这一方案。”
消息人士告诉美国广播公司，预计周四将对这一措施进行投票，这将使脆弱的共和党人在改选中有所作为，因为全国各地的美国人都在遭受冠状病毒大流行的折磨，但预计该法案不会获得通过所需的60票。
纽约市长舒默在周四写给同事的一封信中称，5000亿美元的提案“过于单薄”，“明显不够充分。”
舒默写道:“很明显，共和党人是在试图‘检查盒子’，给人以行动的印象，而不是真正满足美国人民真正深刻的需求。”
在围绕病毒资助的激烈党派斗争中，立法者必须在9月30日前联合起来资助政府，以避免政府关门。
尽管许多人认为国会领导人将被迫将新冠肺炎刺激援助计划与一项临时政府资助法案合并，鉴于病毒谈判的现状，这是一个不稳定的提议，但佩洛西和财政部长姆努钦本周达成了一项至关重要的协议，似乎将两个最重要的议程项目转移到了不同的轨道上。
亚历克斯·王/盖蒂图像，文件
2020年8月7日，众议院议长南希·佩洛西和参议院少数党领袖查克·舒默在DC国会山的新闻发布会上发言。
据一位知情人士透露，周二，佩洛西和姆努钦就一项临时政府拨款法案达成一致。这份非正式协议称之为持续解决方案，它将推迟9月30日之后的政府关门，并避免将该问题与正在进行的冠状病毒救援谈判纠缠在一起。
据消息人士透露，美国广播公司新闻频道(ABC News)预计将在共和党控制的参议院获得批准，以目前的水平为政府提供资金的提议，可能会避免在11月大选前关闭政府，并有可能持续到年底，这取决于民主党和特朗普政府达成的协议。
佩洛西的发言人德鲁·哈米尔对美国广播公司说:“众议院民主党人支持一项干净的、持续的决议。”
但就持续解决方案达成的高级别协议仍将使大流行资金问题悬而未决，而一系列其他问题将在下个月达到顶点。
随着对即将到来的选举的高度关注，民主党人预计将重返国会，推动国家情报局局长办公室8月29日做出的一项决定，即停止向国会进行面对面的选举安全简报，转而只提供书面形式的情报信息。
新上任的国家情报局局长约翰·拉特克利夫上周对一群参议员说，“这种做法有助于最大限度地确保国家情报局局长办公室向国会提供的信息不会被误解或政治化。”
民主党人痛斥这一决定，佩洛西在给拉特克利夫的一封信中称这是“你放弃了让美国人民和他们选出的代表了解外国对2020年选举的威胁的责任。”
消息是在7月中旬的DHS情报公告的第二天发布的，该公告警告俄罗斯试图诋毁民主党总统候选人乔·拜登。正如美国广播公司新闻报道的那样这份备忘录从未公布，加剧了民主党人的担忧，即政府试图在选举前隐瞒重要的安全信息。许多共和党人尚未介入此事。
与此同时，三名参议院委员会主席预计将公布两项平行调查的结果，这两项调查是针对2016年联邦政府调查俄罗斯在2016年选举期间的干涉而展开的。民主党人谴责这种调查有党派动机，特别是为了损害拜登的候选资格和帮助特朗普。
托尼·桑迪/华盛顿邮报
在这张2020年8月6日的档案照片中，参议员罗恩·约翰逊在华盛顿国会山的参议院国土安全和政府事务委员会听证会上发言。
参议员林赛·格拉汉姆、罗恩·约翰逊和查克·格拉斯利一直在带头调查拜登和他的儿子亨特·拜登在乌克兰能源公司布里斯玛的事。
没有证据表明拜登夫妇中的任何一人犯了罪，也不认为他们受到任何与亨特·拜登在乌克兰的工作相关的联邦调查。
不过，共和党主席表示，他们希望在2020年选举之前公布他们的报告。约翰逊说，他关于拜登夫妇的报告最早可能在9月中旬出炉。
情报部门8月份发布的一份声明警告称，亲俄罗斯的乌克兰国民安德烈·德尔卡什(Andriy Derkach)对选举进行了干预。声明称，德尔卡什“散布有关腐败的言论，包括通过公开泄露的电话，以削弱前副总统拜登的候选人资格和民主党。”
民主党人声称约翰逊和格拉斯利使用了德尔卡提供的文件作为他们调查的一部分，这一说法被两位参议员否认。
周四，约翰逊和格拉斯利发表声明为他们的调查辩护。
这些参议员写道:“国会应该认真对待任何对我们选举的真正威胁，而不仅仅是那些民主党人认为政治上方便的威胁，或是那些他们根据实际的假消息捏造出来的、用来诽谤他们的政治对手的威胁。”
Senate returns to partisan showdowns as election looms
Senators return to Washington Tuesday with a slate of politicallycontentious objectivesto check off just as the 2020electionseasonrevs into high gear.
While thestalemate continueson another COVID-19 relief package, other legislative priorities -- primarily a stopgap government funding bill to avert a government shutdown -- also loom large.
Lawmakers, bitterly divided overcoronavirusspending, face a tremendous time crunch with just two weeks to break the logjam before they depart for the month of October to focus on the November election.
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, in press stops around Kentucky during the Senate recess, laid the groundwork for a politically difficult return, pointing to the upcoming election as the cause of Congress' failure to find common ground oncoronavirusrelief before its exodus from Washington at the beginning of August.
"Regretfully as we've gotten closer and closer to the election, the degree of bipartisan cooperation has descended," McConnell said at a local stop Wednesday. "And I can't tell you for sure whether we'll get another rescue package or not."
In this Aug. 4, 2020, file photo, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell speaks after attending the Senate Republican luncheon at the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC.
After weeks of failed negotiations between the administration and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Senate Republicans are now looking to advance a new piece of COVID-19 relief legislation that’s a slimmed-down version of their original $1 trillion Health, Economic Assistance, Liability Protection and Schools (HEALS) Act.
While the HEALS Act floundered -- failing to garner support from more than half of the GOP conference -- Republican leadership hopes the new, "skinny" proposal will attract at least 51 Republican votes, a statement of support from the majority that might aid McConnell in bipartisan negotiations.
The new $500 billion proposal, which is not expected to attract Democratic support, includes funding for reduced federal unemployment insurance benefits, virus treatment and tracing, vaccines, liability protections and aid for schools and small businesses.
"We have a focused, targeted solution that we hope that the House would pass," Sen. John Barrasso, a member of GOP leadership, told reporters Tuesday, adding, "That's the goal, is to come back and vote to move to that."
While a vote on the measure -- which sources tell ABC News is expected Thursday -- would give vulnerable Republicans something to point to in their reelections as Americans around the country suffer amid the coronavirus pandemic, it is not expected to get the 60 votes needed for passage.
In a letter to his colleagues on Thursday, Schumer, D-N.Y., called the $500 billion proposal "emaciated" and "clearly inadequate."
"It is clear Republicans are trying to "check the box" and give the appearance of action rather than actually meet the truly profound needs of the American people," Schumer wrote.
Amid the bitter partisanship around virus funding, lawmakers must come together to fund the government by Sept. 30 to avert a government shutdown.
And while many thought congressional leaders would be forced to merge COVID-19 stimulus aid efforts with a stopgap government funding bill, a precarious proposition given the state of virus negotiations, Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Mnuchin reached a crucial agreement this week that seems to move the two top agenda items on separate tracks.
Speaker of the House Rep. Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer speak at a news conference Aug. 7, 2020, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC.
On Tuesday, Pelosi and Mnuchin agreed on a temporary government funding bill, according to a person familiar with their Tuesday phone call. The informal agreement called a continuing resolution would stave off a government shutdown after Sep. 30 and avoid entangling the issue with ongoing coronavirus relief negotiations.
The proposal to fund government at current levels, which sources tell ABC News is expected to be approved in the GOP-run Senate, could avoid a shutdown before the November election and potentially through the end of the year, depending on the agreement reached by Democrats and the Trump administration.
"House Democrats are for a clean continuing resolution," Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill told ABC News.
But the high-level agreement on a continuing resolution would still leave pandemic funding unresolved while a host of other issues are poised to come to a head over the next month.
With a heightened focus on the upcoming election, Democrats are expected to return to the Hill pushing back on an Aug. 29 decision by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to cease in-person election security briefings to Congress and instead providing intelligence information only in written form.
The newly-minted Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe told a group of senators last week that "this approach helps ensure, to the maximum extent possible, that the information ODNI [Office of the Director of National Intelligence] provides the Congress … is not misunderstood nor politicized."
Democrats lambasted the decision, with Pelosi calling it "an abdication of your responsibility to keep the American people and their elected representatives informed of foreign threats to the 2020 election" in a letter to Ratcliffe.
News broke the following day of a DHS intelligence bulletin from mid-July, which warned of Russia’s attempt to discredit Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.As ABC News reported, the memo was never published, fueling concern from Democrats that the administration is seeking to withhold crucial security information in advance of the election. Many Republicans have yet to weigh in on the matter.
Meanwhile, three Senate committee chairmen are expected to unveil the findings of two parallel investigations digging into the 2016 federal probes of Russian interference during the 2016 election -- something Democrats have decried as having partisan motivations, specifically to hurt Biden’s candidacy and to aid Trump.
In this Aug. 6, 2020, file photo, Sen. Ron Johnson speaks during a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington.
Sens. Lindsey Graham, Ron Johnson and Chuck Grassley have been leading the probes with an eye toward Biden and the involvement of his son, Hunter Biden, in Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company.
There is no evidence that either of the Bidens committed a crime, and they are not believed to be under any type of federal investigation related to Hunter Biden's work in Ukraine.
Still, the GOP chairmen have said they expect to publish their reports in advance of the 2020 election. Johnson said his report on the Bidens and Burisma could come as soon as mid-September.
A statement released by the intelligence community in August warned of Russian interference in the election by way of pro-Russian Ukrainian national Andriy Derkach, who the statement said is "spreading claims about corruption -- including through publicizing leaked phone calls -- to undermine former Vice President Biden's candidacy and the Democratic Party."
Democrats have alleged that Johnson and Grassley have used documents furnished by Derkach as part of their investigation, a claim that both senators have denied.
On Thursday, Johnson and Grassley issued a statement in defense of their probe.
"Congress should take seriously any real threat to our elections, not just the ones Democrats find politically convenient or ones they cook up based on actual disinformation to smear their political rivals," the senators wrote.
