‘People are really hurting’: Northwest lawmakers weigh in on COVID-19 relief talks as Congress gives itself 48-hour extension

WASHINGTON – In the hours before Congress passed a last-minute bill to fund the government for two more days and avert a shutdown Friday night, Northwest lawmakers voiced frustration as coronavirus relief talks between Republican and Democratic leaders dragged on.

“I’ve talked to families who are struggling, who need their unemployment insurance benefits extended. People who are in food lines and are desperate … All kinds of businesses that are now in a phase of this pandemic where they are really panicked,” said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash. “I think the pressure comes from people across the country who really are desperate for us to get something done.”

The House and Senate passed a short-term spending bill with just hours before the federal government would have shut down at midnight, a week after lawmakers passed a one-week stopgap measure to buy themselves time to negotiate both a longer-term funding bill and a $900 billion pandemic relief package.

“I believe we are finally getting very close to a deal,” Murray said midday Friday. “No one wants a government shutdown. People are working very hard right now to get the final details done, and I hope it doesn’t come to that.”

After Congress passed a roughly $3 trillion relief package in March, congressional leaders and White House envoys have failed to strike a deal to help struggling Americans and prop up the flagging economy. Talks were kick-started when a group of moderate Democrats and Republicans unveiled a compromise proposal Dec. 1, but negotiations now depend on the parties’ top leaders in the House and Senate.

“A lot of work has been done by a lot of people,” Murray said, “but now we’re down to what the four leaders can agree on for the final package.”

Rep. Dan Newhouse, a Central Washington Republican, expressed the irritation shared by many legislators outside the leadership quartet – Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and GOP Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, both of California.

“It’s frustrating that we’re not there yet,” he said. “These are difficult, complex packages in some respects, and so I can appreciate that it does take a little time to make it happen, but we’ve been here for a while, and that’s why it’s frustrating for the rank and file to be still in this place. The clock is ticking.”

“We are going to be beyond the point of getting this done before the current continuing resolution expires,” Newhouse said, referring to the short-term spending bill. “That will require us to be here into the weekend and maybe beyond that, and that’s not something that most people want to do, to spend Christmas week here, but that’s where we find ourselves.”

After calls from members of both parties to include another round of direct payments to individuals, the negotiators have reportedly added $600 checks – half of the amount lawmakers authorized in spring. Murray said she supports the one-time payments, along with enhanced unemployment benefits, to help tide people over until President-elect Joe Biden is inaugurated, when she hopes Congress will pass another relief package.

“I know so many people who are really struggling, and individual relief right now is really imperative for a lot of folks,” she said. “We really see this as a bridge package until a new administration comes in and we are able to get to work on the relief that is so badly needed.”

After Congress failed to negotiate a new package to fund the government by the end of the fiscal year in September, lawmakers punted until Dec. 11 with a continuing resolution, a legislative tool lawmakers have used with increasing regularity in recent years. That gave negotiators a clear deadline to reach a spending deal – and potentially attach relief measures – but party leadership blew by that cutoff a week ago.

Murray, who as assistant minority leader is the Senate’s third-ranking Democrat, said she hoped the negotiators would feel the urgency she hears from her constituents in Washington.

“People are really hurting across the country and in Washington state,” Murray said.

President Donald Trump was expected to sign the spending bill, staving off a shutdown until Sunday night. If the party leaders reach a deal over the weekend, the House and Senate will try to pass a spending bill with a relief package attached before government funding runs out again.