Last-minute complaints threaten $2T Senate coronavirus emergency aid
By Jordain Carney - 03/25/20 04:05 PM EDT
A round of eleventh-hour objections is throwing a curveball into the Senate's consideration of a mammoth stimulus package.
Senate leadership announced the deal on the $2 trillion bill shortly after 1 a.m., and want to pass it Wednesday as they face intense pressure to take steps to reassure an American public and an economy rattled by the coronavirus.
But a brewing fight over a deal on unemployment provisions is threatening to open the door to a push for broader changes to the bill, which was negotiated by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who is running for the Democratic presidential nomination, warned that unless a group of GOP senators back down from their demand for changes to the unemployment insurance benefits, he would slow walk the bill until stronger guardrails were put on hundreds of billions in funding for corporations.
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https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/489525-last-minute-complaints-threaten-2t-senate-coronavirus-emergency-aid