Many Americans might be in for hard times this winter after negotiations to get food onto their tables and assist struggling small businesses went nowhere Wednesday.
House Democrats have delayed a vote on a revised $2.4 trillion HEROES Act stimulus package to give Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin another day to make a deal. Pelosi and Mnuchin agreed to continue negotiations.
Talks between House Democrats and the Trump administration for another multitrillion-dollar coronavirus rescue package fell through after Republicans objected to the new $2.4 trillion price tag put forward by Democrats. The failure suggests it is unlikely Americans will receive $1,200 stimulus checks and the $600 federal weekly unemployment benefit before the Nov. 3 election.
The original act passed by the House on May 15 called for $3.2 trillion in new stimulus.
Republican resistance forced Democrats to lower their number to $2.4 trillion. The Democrat-controlled House will vote on the revised act within the week. The Democrats' plan is $1 trillion smaller than an initial proposal but is still more than the Trump administration has said it would accept.
The Democrats' revised bill rejected by Republicans would have restored some programs to help families during the COVID-19 pandemic. The revised act had provisions for another $1,200 per adult for middle- and low-income families.
It would also have restored the $600 in extra weekly jobless benefits - a lifeline to tens of millions who lost jobs as a result of the pandemic. The unemployment benefit expired July 31.
Restoring the $600 weekly federal jobless benefit will be a critical income boost "particularly for recipients in states where unemployment compensation is capped at sub-poverty-levels," said Rebecca Dixon, executive director of the National Employment Law Project.
More than 21 million Americans remain jobless or temporarily out of work because of the pandemic, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
