We'll keep this short since all of the back and forth is dizzying.
Instead of supporting HEROES 2.0 passed by the House of Representatives or the $1.8 Trillion deal offered by the White House, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he will offer yet another "skinny" proposal (he has done this twice and both times it has failed). He will bring this new proposal to a vote when the Senate returns on Monday October 19th.
At an event in his home state, McConnell said the plan will include new funding for the Paycheck Protection Program small business loans as well as money for schools, an unemployment insurance boost, and liability protections for businesses. These were all items that were included in his last skinny bill which you can read details on here. The FPUC was only $300 in that bill. We do not have details on the level they will offer in this bill, but we will be reaching out to his office about it. Liability protections are a major sticking point. His previous plan protected businesses from being sued by workers for the next 5 years. That does not protect American workers and allows businesses to act with negligence in a pandemic.
While this bill is guaranteed to be woefully inadequate in meeting the needs of this crisis, it still is a beacon of hope that EVERYONE at least wants to appear like they are advocating for some sort of relief for the American people before the election. There is still movement and we may come to some sort of relief before the election.
We urge you to continue putting pressure on your Senators for a COMPREHENSIVE relief bill. Ask them to support HEROES, the House Bill, or $600 publicly. All Democratic Senators and several Republican Senators have said there needs to be healthcare and rent relief included in the bill as well as state and local government funding. McConnell will not include any of that unless his fellow GOP Senators and voters make him. Keep calling. We have this week to determine what that bill looks like.
Trump tweeted "Go Big or Go Home" so McConnell is obviously distancing himself and the Senate GOP from White House's wishes in this move.
The bill is estimated to come in at $500 billion, says Reuters. The last skinny bill proposal McConnell made was estimated to cost $500-700 billion. So this new offer doesn't seem to be any offer to compromise on his part.
More from CNBC on all of this here.
Updates: McConnell's tweet on the bill here.
Information on votes on this bill here.
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