Nancy Pelosi gave the White House 48 hours to agree to a new coronavirus stimulus deal. On Sunday, the House Speaker said reaching a deal on a new plan is necessary for the Congress to pass the relief before the upcoming elections.
“The 48 only relates to if we want to get it done before the election—which we do,” she said. “But we’re saying to them we have to freeze the design on some of these things, are we going with it or not, and what is the language,” she added.
Pelosi said any agreement on a new coronavirus stimulus deal would depend on the administration. “We don’t have agreement in the language yet, but I’m hopeful,” she said. “I’m optimistic because, again, we’ve been back and forth on all of this.”
Pelosi have been in talks with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin over a new coronavirus stimulus package but they have yet to hammer out a deal. Their negotiations will resume on Monday.
The House approved in May a $3 trillion coronavirus stimulus package that went nowhere in the Senate, but the White House offered a compromise $1.8 billion plan. Pelosi opposed the move, saying $1.8 billion was far less than what the government needed to offer.
“The testing. The tracing. The treatment. The mask-wearing. The separation. The sanitation. And all that goes with it,” she said. She also urged the government to come up with a concrete strategy to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, which has claimed more than 220,000 lives in the U.S.
Meanwhile, Nancy Pelosi has not spoken with Donald Trump in a year. Asked if she would pick up a phone to talk to the president, she said she would. “I have a great deal of respect for the office I hold, speaker of the House, and I have a great deal of respect for the position that he holds, president of the United States,” she said.
“This is not a casual conversation. This is about a meeting of the head of the first branch of the government, the legislative branch, and the president,” she added.
© 2024 Latin Times. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
