Pelosi Works to Cut Emergency Deal. Mcconnell Skips Town Till Monday.

March 13th 2020

By Kerry Eleveld

This really says it all: Speaker Nancy Pelosi has reportedly been working all day to cut an emergency deal with the White House to address the coronavirus. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, after saying earlier Thursday that he had delayed a scheduled Senate recess, went ahead and left town anyway.

That means anything the House passes either Thursday night or Friday will sit for several days until McConnell cares enough to come back from his vacation to pass it. Or not. Maybe Senate Republicans will simply kill the deal that they made no effort to negotiate. Who knows? Senate Republicans clearly aren’t feeling a lot of urgency.

UPDATE

NEWS.... PELOSI: “we have or near to an agreement. ... we hope to have an announcement tomorrow”
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) March 13, 2020

As @SpeakerPelosi & Steve Mnuchin negotiate, @senatemajldr has left the building to head home for the weekend. Senate to address any House coronavirus legislation next week
— Kasie Hunt (@kasie) March 12, 2020

Senate is leaving town till Monday, meaning whatever the House passes tonight or tomorrow on the coronavirus outbreak will have to wait till then https://t.co/DKYfwMpHCo
— Igor Bobic (@igorbobic) March 12, 2020

From earlier Thursday, when it looked like maybe Senate Republicans might attempt to be useful (things have changed since then).

Senate scraps its recess amid growing pressure to pass an economic relief package - and amid a push by House Dems to pass their own bill today. GOP senators up for re-election did not want to go home without passing a bill https://t.co/bsu5McmSsb
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) March 12, 2020

Posted with permission