Stimulus talks extended as Pelosi signals progress
The talks over a $2T stimulus plan have extended past the deadline, as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi signals progress. Yahoo Finance’s Alexis Christoforous and Brian Sozzi speak with Jessica Smith for the latest.
Video Transcript
ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: It's still not quite clear this morning just what is going on with these stimulus talks. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi signaled some more progress yesterday and seemed to extend the deadline for a deal. That deadline was supposed to be last night, but Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell is reportedly urging the White House to reject whatever they come up with. Our Jessica Smith is here now with more. I think everybody at this point, Jess, pretty confused. Can you sort things out for us at all?
JESSICA SMITH: Well, first, let's start with what's going on between Speaker Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Mnuchin. As you mentioned, she was optimistic yesterday after that conversation, and she said the deadline she said over the weekend of yesterday end of day allowed them to see that both sides are serious about finding compromise. She says in an interview on Bloomberg yesterday that they need to have the bill written by the end of the week in order to get something done by the election. She directed her committee chairs to start resolving differences on certain issues where issues where problems remain. She says that she's going to talk again with Treasury Secretary Mnuchin when he gets back from overseas later today, so we'll be looking for what they have to say after that conversation.
We did hear from White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows in an interview this morning saying that we should find out in 48 hours, like that's the goal, again, another 48 hours to get this deal done. Meanwhile, over in the Senate, there is some reporting from "Washington Post" and "The New York Times" saying that Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has warned the White House not to accept the deal if there is a deal between Pelosi and Mnuchin before the election. He says he's worried about the political ramifications and that this could jeopardize the timeline of confirming the president's Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett once they get that done before the election.
Publicly, he did tell reporters yesterday if there is a deal with the House and the administration, the Senate would take it up at some point. So being pretty cautious about the wording there, saying that they would take it up at some point. That doesn't necessarily mean before the election. And even if the Senate is going to vote on it at some point, a roughly $2 trillion bill is going to be very difficult to get through the Republican Senate. We have heard from Republicans saying that it is just too expensive. It's too much money, so we will see what happens here. Hopefully by the end of the week, maybe we'll get some clarity on what's going on.
BRIAN SOZZI: Jess, is the Senate still plowing ahead with its slimmed down stimulus bill?
JESSICA SMITH: It is. The Senate is set to vote on this roughly $500 billion stimulus bill later today. They did try to move forward with a bill on PPP yesterday. Five Senate Democrats did cross over and vote with Republicans on that, but they did not have enough votes for it to pass. But yes, today they will try to pass this relief effort. Senate Democrats are saying that this is just a move by Majority Leader McConnell to give his party some cover to say they did something before the election. On the other hand, majority Leader McConnell says if we can agree on something, we should do what we can. We shouldn't wait or shouldn't take this all or nothing approach, but we do not expect this bill to go forward.
