Trump urges stimulus package bigger than $2.2 trillion as Senate GOP readies slimmer measure

WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin were locked in last-ditch negotiations on Tuesday aimed at reaching an approximately $2 trillion economic relief package days before the Nov. 3 election as Senate Republicans prepared to advance a much narrower measure this week.

In a Bloomberg interview on Tuesday, Pelosi said she has insisted that the White House and Democrats bring forward their best offers by the end of the day so they can examine key differences for a final phase of negotiations.

She also said that if they are going to vote on a deal by the end of next week, they need to agree on specific language by the end of this week. She described herself as "optimistic" but said key differences remain, particularly on business liability protections and state aid.

"It isn't that this day is the day we would have a deal," said Pelosi, D-Calif. "It's a day when we would have our terms on the table to be able to go to the next step. Legislation takes a long time."

In addition to the negotiations, there's a flurry of public posturing by all sides, much of it conflicting. President Donald Trump said Tuesday morning on "Fox and Friends" that he wants an agreement with an even larger cost than the $2.2 trillion Pelosi has proposed, while alleging that the House speaker does not want to reach a deal. Pelosi has said this isn't true, but she added that she's getting mixed messages from Republicans, with Trump wanting a giant spending bill and Senate lawmakers demanding something much smaller.

Trump has brushed aside complaints from Senate Republicans and said they will ultimately back a package if he tells them to.

"It's very simple: I want to do it even bigger than the Democrats. Not every Republican agrees with me, but they will," Trump said. "They'll be on board if something comes."

"I'd take all the votes you could get, whether it's Democrat or Republican," Trump said.

But Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby, R-Ala., a veteran of Capitol Hill, had a more downbeat assessment.

"I'm not optimistic about us doing anything," he said.

The scrambling comes amid signs that economic recovery is straining. The unemployment rate remains high, the travel industry is in rough shape, and there are growing concerns about problems in the commercial real estate sector. Many restaurants are struggling, and some are going out of business seven months after the pandemic floored the American economy.

Staffers for Pelosi and Mnuchin continued to haggle over the contours of a deal as part of negotiations that have stretched on for months. It was uncertain whether they would be able to reach a resolution.

Pelosi has cited progress in talks but criticized the administration for partially rejecting Democrats' national testing proposal. Democrats have also demanded more funding for child care and tax credits for families.

Appropriations Committee staffers in both chambers and major political parties held some talks Monday, but their negotiations appeared to stall amid disagreements about what they could actually accomplish without knowing the specifics of anything Pelosi and Mnuchin had agreed to, according to several people involved who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the private talks.

Pelosi acknowledged there were problems in speeding up the appropriations negotiations, but she said in the Bloomberg interview that she hoped it could be resolved.

Senate Republicans were set Tuesday to try to advance the first of two narrowly targeted bills that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has said represent what his conference can support — a rejection of the massive package taking shape between Pelosi and Mnuchin.

The legislation expected on the floor Tuesday would provide an additional $260 billion to the small business Paycheck Protection Program, and would allow businesses that already tapped loans earlier this year to get new funding. On Wednesday, McConnell will try to advance an approximately $500 billion bill that will include jobless benefits for the unemployed, funding for schools and the health-care system, and new small business funding — but will exclude many provisions sought by Democrats and Trump, including a new round of $1,200 stimulus payments.

Senate Democrats have lambasted McConnell for trying to advance what they describe as "emaciated" bills that would provide political cover to Republicans without really solving any problems. The approximately $500 billion bill is nearly identical to a piece of legislation McConnell tried to advance last month, which Democrats opposed.

If Pelosi and Mnuchin do manage to reach a deal McConnell has said the Senate would "consider" it. He has not committed publicly to a vote, but privately told allies that he would bring a deal between Mnuchin and Pelosi to the floor, according to one person who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share his private remarks.

However, after casting votes on the two narrower relief bills Tuesday and Wednesday, Senate Republicans plan to move on to confirming Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court before recessing through the election — a timeline that does not leave room for wrangling over a big new spending bill.

Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., the Senate GOP whip, told reporters on Monday that it would be difficult to find enough Senate Republicans to approve a stimulus package of $1.8 trillion. Asked Tuesday about that comment, Trump said: "We'll have to talk to Thune."

Trump also downplayed the risks of additional debt spending, a concern McConnell and other Republicans have begun to raise as the deficit balloons. “The government, we get the money back — it gets the money back anyway and it’s better than unemployment and all the costs associated with the alternative,” the president said.

Congress this year approved roughly $3 trillion in aid to try and contain the economic fallout. Some of the funds appeared to help numerous sectors of the economy, but problems remain, particularly as certain programs expired.

A poll released Tuesday by The New York Times and Siena College found support for a $2 trillion stimulus package, and many economists have urged policymakers to approve additional fiscal relief.

"The recovery has slowed, and without more help it is at risk of backsliding. Neither the virus nor the economic damages it has wrought are gone, and policymakers would be making a serious mistake to act as if they were," said Adam Ozimek, chief economist at Upwork.

Congress has not passed relief legislation since April. House Democrats passed two far-reaching bills, but Senate Republicans rejected them. A significant minority of Senate Republicans believe that enough money already has been spent and that nothing more needs to be done.