Mnuchin open to restarting stimulus bill talks. Where do congressional leaders stand?

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he’s open to restarting talks on the second coronavirus relief package after negotiations stalled last week and President Donald Trump signed executive actions aimed at delivering aid.

“The president is determined to spend what we need to spend. ... We’re prepared to put more money on the table,” Mnuchin told CNBC on Monday. He didn’t give more details on when White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer would meet again.

Democratic leaders appeared “willing to compromise,” Mnuchin said.

Pelosi also seemed open to negotiations, saying on Sunday that “of course there’s room for compromise” when it comes to $600 weekly unemployment benefits.

Senate Republicans introduced their $1 trillion stimulus package, called the Health, Economic Assistance, Liability Protection and Schools (HEALS) Act, two weeks ago, McClatchy News previously reported.

Trump signed the original $2.2 trillion bipartisan coronavirus bill, called the CARES Act, into law in March.

The CARES Act included $600 a week for unemployment. The HEALS Act would replace 70 percent of what someone made before losing their job instead of the $600 from the first package, according to Sen. Chuck Grassley, a Republican from Iowa. The $600 weekly benefits from the CARES Act expired July 31.

House Democrats passed their own $3 trillion coronavirus aid bill, called the HEROES Act, on May 15, but it never received a vote in the Senate.

The HEALS Act would include $1,200 payments to individuals and $500 for dependents, similar to the CARES Act. The HEROES Act would give $1,200 for individuals and another $1,200 for dependents, capping the limit at three, Forbes reported.

Democrats in Congress, including Pelosi, have pushed for continuing the $600 weekly unemployment benefits, while signaling some room for compromise depending on the unemployment rate, Business Insider reported. The unemployment rate was 11.1% in June, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, after peaking at 14.7% in April, surpassing the level of unemployment during the Great Recession.

“It was a disappointing meeting,” Schumer said on Friday, according to CNN senior congressional correspondent Manu Raju. Schumer added that the Trump administration couldn’t go “much above” the $1 trillion package and Democrats were willing to compromise for $2 trillion.

Mnuchin rejected Pelosi’s offer to “split the difference” between Republican and Democratic coronavirus relief packages, Bloomberg reported.

Trump signs executive actions

After talks reached an impasse last week, Trump signed four executive orders on Saturday, including one that seeks to provide up to $400 in weekly unemployment benefits.

“I’m taking action to provide an additional or extra $400 a week and expanded benefits, $400. That’s generous but we want to take care of our people,” Trump said, according to CNN.

Under Trump’s action, states would have to enter an agreement with the federal government and cover 25 percent — $100 per week — of the unemployment benefit. If states don’t agree or chip in funds, unemployed people could get end up getting no benefits, according to CNN.

Another action doesn’t reinstate the moratorium on evictions, which applied to mortgages backed by federal dollars, but directs the Housing and Urban Development and Treasury secretaries to “identify any and all available Federal funds to provide temporary financial assistance to renters and homeowners”

“The Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Director of the CDC shall consider whether any measures temporarily halting residential evictions of any tenants for failure to pay rent are reasonably necessary to prevent the further spread of COVID-19,” the measure states.

An executive action on payroll taxes signed by Trump also doesn’t reduce payroll taxes but would defer the due date, according to CNN. Part of the taxes — 6.2 percent for Social Security and 1.45 percent for medicare — will be deferred through Dec. 31.

The deferral applies to people whose wages are less than $4,000 on a biweekly pay period.

An executive action on student loan payments would direct the Education Department to extend the relief under the CARES Act until Dec. 31. Payments were paused for federal student loans until Sept. 30.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle criticized the executive actions.

Sen. Ben Sasse, a Republican from Nebraska, called the move “unconstitutional slop.”

“The pen-and-phone theory of executive lawmaking is unconstitutional slop,” Sasse said in a statement obtained by The Hill. “President (Barack) Obama did not have the power to unilaterally rewrite immigration law with DACA, and President Trump does not have the power to unilaterally rewrite the payroll tax law.”

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, said he “appreciated” the actions but “would much prefer a congressional agreement.”

Pelosi told Fox News: “The president’s meager, weak and unconstitutional actions further demand that we have an agreement.”

“Unfortunately, the president’s executive orders described in one word could be paltry,” Schumer said on ABC. “In three words: unworkable, weak and far too narrow.”

Trump slammed Sasse for his comments on Monday morning, writing on Twitter that the senator has “gone rogue, again” and his “foolishness plays right into the hands of the Radical Left Dems!”

Trump also tweeted that Pelosi and Schumer “want to meet to make a deal,” adding, “Where have they been for the last 4 weeks when they were ‘hardliners’, and only wanted BAILOUT MONEY for Democrat run states and cities that are failing badly?”