Republicans erupted in anger and opposition Monday after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi released an economic relief package the GOP characterized as stuffed with liberal agenda items unrelated to the coronavirus crisis.
Pelosi, a California Democrat, unveiled the plan Monday afternoon, arguing it provides adequate help for workers and families hurt by the economic crisis brought on by the coronavirus. Moments earlier, Senate Democrats blocked a $2 trillion economic relief bill in an effort to win more concessions from the GOP. Pelosi hopes her bill’s provisions will be included in a final deal, she said.
“We give direct payments to families in a robust way and strengthen the child tax credit and the earned income tax credit,” Pelosi said, outlining part of the plan from a room within the Capitol. “We urge the Senate to move closer to the values” in the House bill, she said.
While the measure includes more aid to individuals and families, it also calls for new requirements for companies that receive emergency federal aid and loans, as well as changes to election law and energy policy long sought by Democrats.
The measure would require early voting and same-day voter registration in every state.
Among the energy-related provisions is a carbon footprint reporting requirement for the airline industry now poised to receive $58 billion in federal aid. The airlines would have to reduce their overall emissions by 50% by 2050.
The House bill would cap CEO salaries at 50 times the median pay of airline workers, or about $3.6 million, and airline corporate boards would have to reserve a seat for at least one labor union official.
Senate Republicans, who are in the majority, rejected many of the provisions outright.
“It is a liberal wish list,” Sen. John Barrasso, a Wyoming Republican, said in reaction to the House bill.
Republican Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas railed against the environmental language in the House bill, which he called an attempt to pass parts of the “Green New Deal” supported by most Democrats.
“That’s not pertinent to this particular situation, to say the least,” Roberts said.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina and chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said Democrats are using the crisis to “enact politics that would not have a snowball’s chance in hell getting through the United States Senate.”
Graham said the Democratic demands were blocking the $2 trillion aid package that will provide hundreds of billions of dollars in aid to individuals, families, and small businesses and stalling aid to healthcare workers in need of critical medical supplies.
“Shame on you,” Graham said to Democrats in a Senate floor speech.
Democrats argue their measure emphasizes regular people over big corporations.
The House measure adds new pay equity data and diversity reporting requirements for corporations receiving federal aid, and it would eliminate entirely the $11 billion in debt held by the financially troubled U.S. Postal Service, which said it needs financial help to avoid cutting service.
Republicans said some of the Democratic proposals may have merit but should not be included in the emergency bill.
“The Democrats want to impose quotas, race and sex, on corporate boards. Is that going to stop anyone from getting sick from the coronavirus?” asked Sen. Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican.
The House bill is more than 1,000 pages long, but much of it is poised to be left out of the Senate deal, which needs bipartisan agreement in order to win passage in the upper chamber.
Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, is seeking to increase the length of time workers can claim unemployment insurance, and he is pushing for more federal aid to states battling the coronavirus. Schumer is also trying to include additional worker protection requirements for companies that take federal aid or loans.
The House bill includes several provisions that would expand on measures in the Senate bill that would provide financial aid to individuals and families.
The House bill would:
– Significantly expand eligibility, temporarily, for the earned income tax credit to include certain young adults and more families and permanently provide an EITC match those who are in Puerto Rico and other U.S. territories.
– Increase, for the next five years, the value of the child tax credit from $2,000 to $3,000, provide a larger credit for children under the age of 6, and make the credit fully refundable regardless of income.
– Require all large corporations that receive financial assistance from the federal government to pay employees a minimum wage of $15 per hour, restrict executive bonuses and compensation, and ban stock buybacks. Airline companies in particular would be required to maintain a $15 minimum wage for their workers for 10 years after receiving the financial assistance.
– Have the Treasury make monthly direct “emergency payments” of $2,000 for qualified individuals and $1,000 for children under 18 for the duration of the pandemic or until the unemployment rate declines. The monthly payments contrast with the one-time payment Republicans originally proposed. Individuals who earn more than $75,000 would receive smaller payments, depending on how much their gross income exceeds the threshold.
