By Reuters
WASHINGTON—The U.S. Treasury secretary and the Senate Democratic leader voiced confidence late on Monday for a deal to be reached soon on a far-reaching CCP virus economic stimulus package that had been stalled in the U.S. Senate as lawmakers haggled over it.
Negotiators made great progress on the bipartisan, $2 trillion stimulus measure on Monday, but without striking a final pact as they had hoped, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Senate Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) told reporters.
“There are still a couple of open issues,” Mnuchin said just before midnight. “I think we are very hopeful that this can be closed out tomorrow.”
Schumer said he thought the Senate could vote as soon as Tuesday, adding, “It’s a huge bill of $2 trillion with many different moving parts.”
They gave no specifics about remaining obstacles, but Democrats have said the stimulus plan originally proposed by Republicans contained too little money for states and hospitals and not enough restrictions on a fund to help big businesses.
Two attempts to advance a Republican measure in the Senate failed in the past two days, despite the party’s majority.
In the second attempt, on Monday, the 49-46 vote fell short of the 60 needed to advance, as only one Democrat voted with Republicans.
Congress has already passed two packages of legislation to blunt the economic toll of the pandemic, which has killed more than 550 people in the United States and sickened more than 43,800, thrown millions out of work, and led state governors to order nearly a third of the nation’s population to stay at home.
Tempers have frayed as Republicans accused Democrats of obstruction during a national emergency, even as talks continued for days.
