Relief bill's passage sets off scramble to declare victory, assign blame
By Alexander Bolton - 12/22/20 06:00 AM EST
The passage of a $900 billion coronavirus relief package after more than seven months of negotiations and recriminations has President Trump and congressional leaders racing to declare victory and blame political opponents for the long delay.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) are both touting the bill as a win, despite neither getting their top priorities in the final measure, and pointing the finger at the other side for not striking a deal earlier.
The legislation passed by Congress late Monday night is in many ways similar to the $1.1 trillion HEALS Act that the White House and Senate Republicans introduced in July, though it doesn’t include the liability protections for businesses that McConnell (R-Ky.) had made a top priority.
Schumer on Monday praised the package, which lacks the $160 billion in new state and local aid previously sought by Democrats, and took shots at McConnell and Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) while doing so.
“Thankfully, the agreement we reached contains neither the Leader’s corporate immunity provision nor Sen. Toomey’s last-minute provision to handicap the Fed’s authority to stabilize the economy in a crisis,†he said referring to language requested by the Pennsylvania Republican to unwind the Federal Reserve’s new credit lending facilities set up by the CARES Act in March.
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https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/531217-relief-bills-passage-sets-off-scramble-to-declare-victory-assign-blame
