A letter from the president's two top negotiators proposes yet another strategy on stimulus negotiations.
In a letter to Congress sent Sunday, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin asked lawmakers to first pass legislation allowing the Trump administration to redirect about $130 billion in unused funding from the Paycheck Protection Program intended for small businesses while negotiations continue on a broader relief effort.
“Now is the time for us to come together and immediately vote on a bill to allow us to spend the unused Paycheck Protection Program funds while we continue to work toward a comprehensive package,” Meadows and Mnuchin said in a letter to Congressional leaders. White House officials have previously expressed willingness to pass a stand-alone measure on reallocating PPP funds.
The shift in strategy from the White House caps a week in which the president and his negotiators adopted a dizzying number of different approaches to securing a relief package through Congress. On Oct. 3, the president demanded Congress approve a relief package before three days, later abruptly calling off negotiations with Democrats, and then calling for action on only a handful of priorities, including airline relief and $1,200 stimulus checks.
“The heart of the matter is: Can we allow the virus to rage on and ignore science, as the administration proposes, or will they accept the scientific strategic plan in the Heroes Act to crush the virus?” she said to her colleagues.Lawmakers in both parties support an extension of the Paycheck Protection Program.
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