Pelosi holds press conference after saying lawmakers “close” to COVID-19 relief bill

8 min readDec 10, 2020

Speaker Nancy Pelosi is holding her weekly press conference Thursday, after saying the bipartisan group of lawmakers engaged in negotiations over a coronavirus relief bill are nearing a deal.

“I think that we’re close. That’s what they tell me, those who are negotiating,” Pelosi told reporters on Wednesday.

Pelosi’s comments come after a bipartisan group of lawmakers circulated a framework for their $908 billion relief proposal Wednesday. The six-page summary obtained by CBS News does not include specifics on liability protections for companies and institutions whose workers get COVID-19 and aid to state and local governments, two of the major sticking points in negotiations.

However, this framework is not a concrete bill, and lawmakers remain divided over the scale and scope of a relief package. Time is running out for Congress to pass any relief proposal, as it also must negotiate and approve an omnibus government funding bill before December 18 to avert a government shutdown.

Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement posted to Twitter on Tuesday that he had spoken to Speaker Nancy Pelosi this evening and made a $916 billion offer for a relief bill. But Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said it “must not be allowed to obstruct the bipartisan Congressional talks that are underway.” They also rejected part of the White House proposal — a reduction in unemployment insurance funding from $180 billion to $40 billion. “That is unacceptable,” they wrote.

Schumer and Pelosi also condemned the suggestion by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that Congress drop the most controversial items from any coronavirus package to be picked up again at the beginning of the year.

“And so that’s part of what our force presence is designed to do, is make the Iranians realize the stakes of what could be at play if those groups did attack … during this period.”

The official said the recent killing of a top Iranian nuclear scientist may also cause Iran to lash out at the U.S. in the region.

“I don’t see any indication that the U.S. is being blamed for the assassination of the scientist,” the official said, “even if we’re not being blamed, we’re often seen as complicit when things like that happen.”

“So I think that there is an element of risk toward us and really toward regional partners.”

Initial jobless claims soared to 853,000 last week, as the surge in coronavirus cases pushed more businesses to implement stricter measures on social distancing, forcing more people out of their job.

More than 3,000 Covid-related deaths were recorded across the country Wednesday, according to an NBC News tally.

Economists had predicted the latest weekly jobless claims total would be around 730,000, higher than the prior week’s newly revised tally of 716,000, but still more than four times the pre-pandemic average of 200,000.

“This week’s report brings a substantial round of movement in the wrong direction,” said AnnElizabeth Konkel, economist at Indeed Hiring Lab. “It is evident the labor market is still in crisis.”

Monthly job openings data released by the Labor Department on Wednesday also reflected the increase in layoffs, with the number of vacancies now at 6.65 million. Last Friday’s monthly jobs report showed that just 245,000 jobs were recovered in the month of November, the smallest gain of the pandemic era.

“Rising infections are restraining consumer spending on services and the economy still has 9 million fewer jobs than it did before the pandemic,” Robard Williams, a senior vice president at Moody’s, wrote in a note. “While we expect the labor market recovery to continue in 2021, new jobless claims remain high as governments have reimposed lockdowns to control rising infection rates, particularly impacting businesses in the high-touch service sectors.”

If lawmakers fail to reach an agreement on further stimulus action, a number of crucial unemployment support programs are set to expire in a few weeks, pushing millions of Americans to the cliff’s edge and impacting the household purchasing power that fuels the economy.

“Millions losing benefits in the middle of a virus surge will likely hurt consumer spending, which could kick off a cycle of less revenue for businesses’ and slow hiring overall,” Konkel said. “There is already some slippage in sectors that are at the mercy of winter. In early November, the trend in food preparation and service job postings on Indeed was down 15 percent compared to last year. But by Dec. 4, that’s slid to 18 percent below last year. There’s a lot of uncertainty ahead for the labor market going into the new year.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on Thursday rejected a $916 billion coronavirus relief proposal offered by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. That deal did not include any additional weekly federal benefits, which Democrats are demanding and the bipartisan group has endorsed.

Around 13 million Americans will lose their jobless benefits. Many more face eviction, or will find student debt has come due.

“Anyone waiting for the economy to reopen, you can starve in that period,” Diane Swonk, chief economist at Grant Thornton, told NBC News. “It’s another fiscal cliff when families have already gone over a fiscal cliff.”

President Donald Trump will meet with state attorneys general at the White House on Thursday, a day after filing a motion to join a Supreme Court challenge launched by Texas that seeks to invalidate President-elect Joe Biden’s election win in four battleground states.

Trump is having lunch with the attorneys general in the Cabinet Room, which will be closed to the press. While it’s unclear what they plan to discuss, Republican attorneys general from 17 states sought to join the lawsuit Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., reached out to his GOP colleagues Wednesday on Trump’s behalf asking them to support the lawsuit in an email with the subject line, “Time-sensitive request from President Trump.”

“President Trump called me this morning to express his great appreciation for our effort to file an amicus brief in the Texas case on behalf of concerned Members of Congress,” Johnson wrote in the email, which was obtained by NBC News and confirmed by Johnson’s office.

“He specifically asked me to contact all Republican Members of the House and Senate today and request that all join on to our brief,” he continued. “He said he will be anxiously awaiting the final list to review.”

Trump is expected to deliver remarks Thursday night at a congressional ball being held at the White House.

More than 200 people attended a “Holiday Cheer” reception hosted by the Department of State on Tuesday night at Blair House, the presidential guest house, a U.S. official said. The Covid-19 guidance for Washington, D.C., is that indoor gatherings may not exceed 10 people.

Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will both separately receive the presidential daily briefing Thursday and meet with their transition advisers.

Harris is also expected to meet with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus for the first time Thursday, a congressional aide said, joining lawmakers at one of the group’s weekly meetings, which take place virtually.

China is imposing restrictions on travel to Hong Kong by some U.S. officials and others in retaliation for similar measures imposed on Chinese individuals by Washington, the Foreign Ministry said Thursday.

U.S. diplomatic passport holders visiting Hong Kong and nearby Macao will temporarily no longer receive visa-free entry privileges, spokesperson Hua Chunying said.

U.S. administration officials, congressional staffers, employees of non-governmental organizations and their immediate family members will face “reciprocal sanctions,” Hua said.

She was apparently referring to U.S. sanctions that bar certain Chinese and Hong Kong officials from traveling to the U.S. or having dealings with the U.S. financial system over their roles in imposing a sweeping National Security Law passed this summer that ushered in a crackdown on free speech and opposition political activity in Hong Kong.

Hua said the move was taken “given that the U.S. side is using the Hong Kong issue to seriously interfere in China’s internal affairs and undermine China’s core interests.”

Those sanctioned “have performed egregiously and are primarily responsible on the Hong Kong issue,“ she said at a daily briefing.

“China once again urges the U.S. side to immediately stop meddling in Hong Kong affairs, stop interfering in China’s internal affairs, and not go further down the wrong and dangerous path,” Hua said.

China had long threatened to retaliate against the U.S. sanctions and other actions seen as hostile.

Earlier, China’s official Xinhua News Agency said Trump administration officials are “digging a hole” for the next U.S. administration’s relationship with China through actions targeting the country and its officials.

Steps such as restricting visas for the 92 million members of the ruling Communist Party and their families have “again exposed the sinister intentions of extreme anti-China forces in Washington to hijack China-U.S. relations for their own political gain,” Xinhua said in an editorial.

The U.S. State Department last week cut the duration of such visas from 10 years to one month, another example of the increasingly hard-line stance adopted by the administration in its waning days. That came in addition to the sanctions targeting specific Chinese and Hong Kong officials over their actions in Hong Kong, the northwestern region of Xinjiang and elsewhere.

While President-elect Joe Biden has signaled he intends to keep pressure on China, he’s also expected to seek a return to more conventional, less confrontational style of diplomacy. Rolling back Trump-era measures could be difficult however, while giving Republicans the chance to renew accusations that Biden is softening Washington’s stance toward Beijing.

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“By relentlessly challenging the bottom line of China-U.S. relations on issues concerning China’s core interests, anti-China politicians are not only digging a hole for the next administration’s relationship with China, but also eying their own personal political gains,” Xinhua said.

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Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has castigated China on almost a daily basis over its policies toward Taiwan, Tibet, Hong Kong, Xinjiang and the South China Sea.

Dozens of officials from mainland China and Hong Kong have been hit with visa bans and other sanctions and new restrictions have been imposed on Chinese diplomats, journalists and academics. Chinese tech giant Huawei has been shut out of the U.S. market and the U.S. has lobbied other countries to follow suit, often successfully.

On Wednesday, Pompeo accused U.S. universities of caving to Chinese pressure to blunt or bar criticism of the the Chinese communist party, which he said was “poisoning the well of our higher education for its own ends.”

Chinese responded by vowing to impose countervailing measures against American officials, saying U.S. accusations and punitive measures only solidified the Chinese people behind their leaders.

Perhaps with an eye toward Biden, who takes office Jan. 20, Xinhua held open the possibility of better relations if Washington changed its approach.

“Today, China and the United States should also uphold the spirit of non-conflict, non-confrontation, mutual respect and win-win cooperation,” Xinhua said. “The two must focus on managing their differences, with the top priority being a smooth transition toward stronger China-U.S. relations.”

Pelosi holds press conference after saying lawmakers “close” to COVID-19 relief bill

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