Republican, Democrats reach compromise over Covid-19 stimulus package
Source: NBC News
WASHINGTON Senior lawmakers reached a compromise over the Federal Reserve's emergency lending powers late Saturday night, overcoming a major hurdle that prevented Congress from completing a $900 billion coronavirus relief package earlier in the week, according to multiple sources.
A last-minute roadblock emerged on Friday as Democrats accused Republicans, namely Pennsylvania's Sen. Pat Toomey, of attempting to encumber the incoming Biden administration by cutting off the Federal Reserve's emergency lending abilities created by the CARES Act meant to protect the already battered economy.
Now that Democrats have agreed to a version of Sen. Toomeys important language, we can begin closing out the rest of the package to deliver much-needed relief to families, workers, and businesses, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told NBC News.
Compromise language is being finalized and any open items are expected to be worked out overnight, according to two aides.
Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/republican-democrats-reach-compromise-over-covid-19-stimulus-package-n1251837
drray23
(7,587 posts)
This agreement rescinds more than $429 billion in unused CARES Act funds; definitively ends the CARES Act lending facilities by Dec. 31, 2020, stops these facilities from being restarted, and forbids them from being duplicated without congressional approval
Basically, the agreement will spell doom for many small businesses and allow republicans to crash the economy.
SunSeeker
(51,368 posts)DownriverDem
(6,206 posts)You win some and lose some. Focus on 1/20/21.
srose58089
(214 posts)Toomey had created a major impasse last week by demanding new limits on the central banks emergency lending authority. His proposal, supported by Republican leadership, threatened the delicate negotiations over the relief package. But after hours of frenzied negotiations and meetings in the Capitol, a compromise between Toomey and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) was brokered around 9:30 p.m., aides in both parties said.
The revised language bars the Federal Reserve from creating precise copies of the lending programs created through the $2 trillion Cares Act passed by Congress. It affirmatively shuts down as of Jan. 1 those programs, which were seeded with a $500 billion appropriation by Congress in March. As congressional negotiators have discussed for weeks, the $429 billion in unspent funds will be redirected to other programs in the new $900 billion bill.
Toomey made his original proposal to make sure that the emergency Federal Reserve facilities created by Congress would shut down at the end of the year. Democrats worried that Toomeys initial proposal went too far in restricting the central banks ability to use its long-standing emergency lending authority to respond to future economic calamities.
Republicans believe the new language will still prevent the Fed from pursuing vast new lending programs on its own without permission and new appropriations from Congress. At the same time, it gives the incoming administration of President-elect Joe Biden the clear authority to pursue new tools in conjunction with the central bank to confront threats to the economic recovery from the pandemic.
drray23
(7,587 posts)will amount to nothing.
Republicans believe the new language will still prevent the Fed from pursuing vast new lending programs on its own without permission and new appropriations from Congress. At the same time, it gives the incoming administration of President-elect Joe Biden the clear authority to pursue new tools in conjunction with the central bank to confront threats to the economic recovery from the pandemic.
Any new tool Biden wants wont pass the senate.
getagrip_already
(14,250 posts)which tells you they gave up the most. Just because it sounds bad, doesn't always mean it is as bad as it sounds, especially when politics are involved.
Biden's team will still be able to unilaterally craft stimulus lending, just not an exact copy of what existed. That sounds like weasel wording to me, and mcconnels grand claims don't hold water.
It's called face saving.
Polybius
(15,238 posts)Im flat broke and enhanced unemployment helps me out tremendously.
stopbush
(24,376 posts)lest the American people have a little cash in their pockets to celebrate the holidays.
James48
(4,416 posts)They do it to us, and we just let them.
betsuni
(25,128 posts)ouija
(397 posts)I still think it depends on the Senate and the Georgia races. If Dems win it, this language matters not.
yaesu
(8,020 posts)poor get bent over, now isn't that special.
Turin_C3PO
(13,650 posts)People are missing meals right now as Im typing this. They desperately need the extended unemployment and $600 stimulus. This will make a difference for millions of people.
DeminPennswoods
(15,246 posts)buy 429B unspent of 500B authorized is a lot left over. It's smart to apply those unspent funds to this bill under a different allocation.
I wonder how much of the 3T CARES Act money is still unspent. I know in Pennsylvania, the state legislature grabbed 1.3B of unspent CARES money to plug a hole in the state budget. Why wasn't this money spent when it was allocated? I'm sure it could have helped many businesses, especially in the hospitality segment, survive the various restrictions that have been and are being imposed on them if they'd gotten it upfront.
bucolic_frolic
(42,672 posts)Nitram
(22,671 posts)poison pill disabling the FED was detoxed.
ProfessorGAC
(64,420 posts)The vague language that could have tied the hands of the fed is gone.
The $429 billion is still there, but not for use of the fed. It will be directed to more specific things in the bill, which might he a positive.
I think it's Toomey who took the bullet.
SunSeeker
(51,368 posts)Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Penn.) finally agreed to drop the broad language in his proposal that would have strictly curbed Federal Reserve emergency powers to launch emergency lending facilities. The Fed used those powers in March to provide loans to small and mid-sized businesses and buy state and local government bonds to aid the economy. The compromise would give the central bank more flexibility to respond to economic calamities. https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_5fded619c5b60f828856e7e2