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US Congress, White House Resolving Differences Over COVID-19 Aid Package

Katherine Gypson

   Negotiations between the White House and the Democratic-majority U.S.
   House of Representatives on a second massive round of coronavirus aid
   have "come a long way," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Tuesday.

   In a Bloomberg News interview ahead of an afternoon phone call with
   Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, Pelosi said the two sides were
   resolving disagreements over language, setting out a national testing
   strategy for detecting the coronavirus as well as addressing the impact
   of the pandemic on communities of color. The two sides are still
   negotiating language for emergency funding for cash-strapped state and
   local governments.

   Pelosi had set Tuesday as the final day to reach a deal with the Trump
   administration before the presidential and congressional elections,
   which are just two weeks away on November 3.

   But she downplayed that self-imposed deadline, saying Tuesday morning,
   "It isn't that this day was a day that we would have a deal, it was a
   day that we would have our terms on the table to be able to go to the
   next step."

   Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell committed Tuesday to bring any
   Trump-approved legislation that results from such a deal to the Senate
   floor for a vote.

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