After claiming the Democrats did “jiu jitsu” on the $2 trillion coronavirus aid package in order to focus more on individuals rather than corporations, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who turns 80 today, said the House will take up the measure tomorrow.
While she said Thursday that she is “very proud of the product” and expects it to pass with strong bipartisan support, she does not expect unanimous consent.
Echoing warnings of public health officials nationwide, Pelosi said getting coronavirus under control “won’t happen unless we respect science, science, science. And for those who say we choose prayer over science, I say science is an answer to our prayers.”
Pelosi, who worked closely with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on negotiating the Phase III bill, said “with all the respect in the world” for Mnuchin, “there was this idea they put forth there would be a $500 billion slush fund for the Secretary of the Treasury with no accountability, whatsoever. Are you kidding?” Pelosi said she is pleased the new language in the bill has a Treasury inspector general and a five-person Congressional oversight committee to oversee the distribution of those funds.
Pelosi is expected to introduce the 880-page Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (or CARES) Act to the House tomorrow. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said the chamber will likely consider the bill by voice vote, with an option for House members to debate on the floor.
The bill faced last-minute opposition from both sides of the Senate aisle. Some Republicans argued provisions of the act disincentivized people from working while Democrats argued there was too much relief for corporations, rather than individuals.
While listing off changes to the bill that she was happy with, Pelosi noted that money to major corporations like airlines are conditional upon those funds going directly to workers.
“With all three of our bills, we have put families and workers first,” she said. She also expressed hope that a potential Phase IV of the relief bill will offer even more worker protections and increased state and local funding.
As she urged people to continue staying home and following warnings of health officials, Pelosi said “the markets are not going to succeed unless we take care of people,” she said.
Without naming the president directly, Pelosi pushed back on the administration’s suggestion that the federal government ease social distancing guidelines and urged him to invoke the Defense Production Act to increase production of ventilators and coordinate distribution. If the nation does not act carefully, she warned “the light at the end of the tunnel may be a train coming at us.”
She also said she was disappointed that Republicans would not agree to an increase in food stamp benefits. In response, she has included that as a priority for another phase of the deal. Other priorities include expanding Family and Medical Leave Act and workplace health and safety protections, expanding the allowance of pension smoothing, and creating a better funding formula for the District of Columbia, which was classified as a territory rather than a state in the Phase III plan.
Though Pelosi said ‘nothing surprises me around here,” she found it “curious” that Washington D.C. was treated “in a very discriminatory way.”
“It doesn’t make sense unless you have some other motivation,” she said.
Still, Pelosi said, “We will have a victory tomorrow for America’s workers.”
But although she may be planning to celebrate a legislative victory tomorrow, her more personal birthday celebration will have to wait until she can hug her grandchildre
The school shooting in Texas that left 19 children and 2 teachers dead has reignited the debate over gun control.
The tragedy in Uvalde is the deadliest school shooting in nearly a decade and marks the latest in a string of mass shootings in the country. Jared Moskowitz, Broward County Commissioner and candidate for Congress in FL-23, joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss why gun control measures are stalled in the Senate, and where legislation can move forward from here.
Police and detectives are still investigating the tragic school shooting in Uvalde, Texas that killed 19 children and two adults. Cheddar News was joined by Kirk Burkhalter, professor at New York Law School and former NYPD detective to gain some insight on what investigators are looking for and what comes next.
Texas authorities say the gunman who massacred 21 people at an elementary school was in the building for over an hour before he was killed by law enforcement officers.
Join Cheddar News as we break down the top headlines for Thursday, May 26 including updates on the Texas school shooting, President Joe Biden's executive order on police reform, and a recount in the Pennsylvania GOP Senate primary.
Representative Morgan Griffith of Virginia rebuked words from the FDA commissioner that could have been construed as blaming parents for stockpiling baby formula exacerbating the shortage.
Cheddar News reporter Megan Pratz brings the latest from the scene of yesterday's horrific school shooting at a Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. Now the second-deadliest school shooting in U.S. history with 19 children and two adults killed, Pratz goes into comments by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, details about the deceased shooter, and reactions from members of the community.
The Robb Elementary School mass shooting killing 19 children and two adults in Uvalde, Texas pm Tuesday was the deadliest school shooting since the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, and came just 10 days after the grocery store shooting in Buffalo, New York. Nelson Vergara, the founder and CEO of 360 Protective Solutions, joined Cheddar’s Opening Bell to discuss. "Right now what law enforcement is concentrating on is trying to trace his steps as to what motivated the gunman to act the way he did. What it boils down to just trying to figure out what led to his motivation to do such a horrific act.”
An recently conducted AP-NORC poll found that majorities of the Black and Hispanic populations in the U.S. still find themselves either somewhat worried or extremely worried over the pandemic, while more than half of white Americans responded with either being not too worried or not worried at all. Dr. Chris Pernell, the chief strategic integration and health equity officer at University Hospital, joined Cheddar News to talk about how perceptions of COVID-19 differ between groups of Americans. "We’re still seeing people get infected, and because of the toll of the disproportionate impact, we have concerns among the Black and brown community about whether or not they have an increased risk of exposure because of where they work, because of the use of public transportation, because they live in homes that they may not be able to safely quarantine and or isolate in, and because they have at baseline chronic health conditions that may make coronavirus more severe in those persons," she said.
Judith Enck, a former regional administrator for the EPA and the president of Beyond Plastics, joined Cheddar News to talk about the role of plastics in the climate crisis and California's investigation of ExxonMobil and other oil companies for misleading the public on the ability to recycle plastics. "The reason why petrochemical companies like Exxon have gotten away with selling more and more plastic is that they've lied to the public and told us don't worry about all those negative upstream impacts and downstream impacts of plastics. Just be sure to recycle it. Well, guess what? Plastics largely are not recycled," Enck said.
