: Republicans will start work in Senate on $1 trillion coronavirus relief package, Mnuchin says

While some things have changed since the $1.7 trillion CARES Act was signed into law March 27, others have not: Cases of COVID-19 continue to increase in many states and many businesses remain shuttered or only partially open.

But while the CARES Act debate was largely conducted on the Republican home field of the Senate (the Democratic-held House having gone into recess), Democrats enter this next round publicly confident. Polls show sinking approval ratings for President Donald Trump and narrowing Senate races that increase the odds of a Democratic takeover.

Things were already heating up Monday, after reports over the weekend that the Trump administration was seeking to block new money to boost coronavirus testing and contact tracing.

“When we heard over the weekend that the White House was thinking about no more testing, that defied – that goes beyond ignorance.  It’s just beyond the pale.  Hopefully, it was a mistake and they’ll back off it because it is so very wrong,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in a televised interview Monday morning.

At the White House, Trump huddled with House and Senate Republican leaders and his senior staff to discuss the next bill that could be publicly unveiled Tuesday or Wednesday.

“Mark and I will be meeting tomorrow with the Republicans at a lunch to give them a full briefing, and then we will also be reaching out to the Democrats to begin our discussions,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told reporters in the Oval Office, referring to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.

Mnuchin also said Republicans will start negotiations with a trillion-dollar package. While that would be on top of the $2.4 trillion price tag for the first four coronavirus bills combined, according to the Congressional Budget Office, Pelosi said last week Democrats are sticking with their $3.4 trillion bill that passed the House in May as their opening bid.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has dismissed the Democrats’ “Heroes Act” as an expensive liberal wish list.

Mnuchin said Monday negotiators aimed to wrap up talks by the end of the month and the House is scheduled to leave for the annual August break July 31. Still, things could drag, as the Senate is not set to leave until the first week of August and House lawmakers have been warned they could stay past July 31.

“I think you can anticipate this coming to a head in the next three weeks ,” McConnell said during a tour of southeastern Kentucky hospitals last week, according to the Corbin, Ky.-based News Journal.

On Monday, McConnell has laid out the Senate GOP’s priorities as children, jobs and health care. That includes legal liability protections for businesses, health care providers and schools related to coronavirus.

“We don’t need an epidemic of lawsuits,” McConnell said at the White House.

That issue, liability, and an add-on amount for jobless benefits that expires soon are likely to be the two biggest sticking points ahead for lawmakers. Pelosi has pooh-poohed the idea of enhanced liability protections, saying instead businesses should be held to standards issued by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

The unemployment add-on, now $600 a week added to the regular jobless benefit checks, will also be tough to resolve. In their bill, House Democrats would extend the add-on through Jan. 31, 2021, for most, with some unemployed able to claim it through March 31.

Many Republicans say the $600 amount is too generous because in some cases an unemployed worker can receive more in benefits than they did at their lost job.

But the add-on appears popular, with a recent poll by left-leaning Data for Progress and the Groundwork Collaborative showing 69% of those polled supporting renewal in order to avoid cutting people’s income, including 52% of Republicans.

Paring back the add-on from $600 to a lower amount looks like a more likely tack for Republicans. Mnuchin has said one of the administration’s goals is to ensure any new add-on amount doesn’t provide more money than a worker’s old wage.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce proposed cutting back the amount to a maximum of $400 and also phasing it out on state-by-state basis, based on each state’s jobless rate, with the add-on falling to zero at 7%.

Adding to the uncertainty is where the White House will fall on specific issues. The administration has largely kept its powder dry publicly in recent weeks. That’s in contrast to March, as the first big bill was being negotiated in the Senate, when Mnuchin and other officials were fixtures in the U.S. Capitol, shuttling between party leaders’ offices.

Trump on Monday restated his desire to see a payroll tax cut in the next bill, even though it has rarely been mentioned by Republicans on Capitol Hill as a priority. “The payroll tax (cut) to me is very important,” Trump said.

Democrats are putting up a unified front ahead of the talks. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters on a conference call Friday, “The bottom line is we’re going to fight for the whole Heroes bill, period.”

Not everything will be a hard fought negotiation, though. The Paycheck Protection Program aimed at helping small businesses keep open by temporarily furloughing workers has been extended into early August and enjoys bipartisan support, though with differences on what tweaks should be made.

Democrats in their bill proposed a second round of $1,200 stimulus checks to go to households, and the Trump administration has signaled it is open to the idea, though Republicans have talked about focusing aid on lower-income workers. And with school districts deciding whether to hold in-person classes, online ones or some combination as the school year begins, there is bipartisan support on Capitol Hill for money to help them reopen.

“I don’t think it should be exclusively based on whether your back in a school room, or not. But I think there’s likely that some of the funding will relate to that because there are additional costs when you reopen these buildings,” Sen. Roy Blunt, a Missouri Republican, said Thursday.

Even that, though, is a hardly a slam dunk. Trump has tweeted about the idea of withholding federal funds — which are usually a small part of school district budgets — unless they reopen. And Pelosi said the $100 billion included in the House bill is probably inadequate.

“We probably will need more money,” she said.