House Speaker Nancy Pelosi beat a retreat Tuesday from the massive coronavirus wish list of Green New Deal projects, immigration measures and other non-virus changes she and fellow Democrats had proposed just hours earlier.
She signaled in several television interviews that her troops would likely accept the deal that will emerge from the Senate, while casting her own 1,404-page bill, with a price tag of $2.5 trillion, as more of a marker for future fights over the direction of American priorities on energy, the workforce, elections, and immigration.
“The easiest way to do it is for us to put aside some of our concerns for another day, and get this done,” the California Democrat told CNBC.
GOP lawmakers were incensed at Mrs. Pelosi’s legislation, released late Monday night, saying it threatened to undo the progress toward a deal with its focus on issues that went beyond the immediate coronavirus rescue effort.
It would have required airlines receiving bailout money to promise to go carbon-neutral by 2025, revoked several Trump executive orders on unionization within the federal workforce, imposed mandatory nationwide early voting and same-day voter registration, and forgiven $10,000 of student loan debt across the board.
Also, any company taking coronavirus bailout money would also have to permanently raise their minimum wage to $15 by the start of next year.
“Everything we’re suggesting just relates to COVID-19,” Mrs. Pelosi told CNN. “It’s not about making long — for the future. It’s about COVID.”
Republicans immediately started to use the Pelosi bill against vulnerable Democrats, accusing them of holding struggling workers hostage to a left-wing wish list.
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, Arizona Democrat, took to Twitter to point out that none of the offending provisions were part of the Senate negotiations.
And an administration official familiar with the talks said the Pelosi bill was a “dead letter” in the Senate discussions.
Mrs. Pelosi fanned out on television to say her goal now is to try to pass whatever emerges from the Senate as quickly as possible — possibly by unanimous consent, or a voice vote, which would mean she wouldn’t have to call lawmakers back to Washington, risking coronavirus spread.
House Republican leaders are on board that plan, too — though they believe a voice vote is more likely than getting unanimous consent from all members.
Republican Whip Steve Scalise, in a call with the whip team, said that would also head off any effort by House Democrats to try to amend the Senate bill — a possibility Mrs. Pelosi did raise several times.
Dissonant voices were making themselves heard.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, New York Democrat, took to Twitter to call the emergency Senate bill “concerning.”
“It seems to give a HALF TRILLION DOLLARS away to big corporations, w/ few worker protections,” she wrote.
Mrs. Pelosi, while embracing the Senate negotiations, said the House lawmakers who put her shelved bill were an “intellectual resource” that did shape the Senate’s work. She praised new additions to the Senate deal, such as an inspector general to monitor the bailout money.
Releasing her bill may end up hurting Mrs. Pelosi’s efforts to sell the Senate legislation after liberal advocacy groups rushed to praise House Democrats for their far-reaching vision.
Read rest at Washington Times
Democrats, Americans know what you tried to do and the delay you caused. We will remember at election time!
Desperate times call for desperate measures — let’s kill the Democrats BEFORE they kill all of us.
I have no problem with that. They are anti american traitors.
Most of these rotten Democrats are Traitors their all Globalists and part of the globalists consperacy to make the USA into the North American(Soviet)Union they want to erase our Borders with Mexico and Canada disarm the public force America back into the Paris Accord and reduce all the Country into a thrid world poverty pocket like have done with Baltimore and Detroit
Run and Hide Nancy its the Truth you fear most and Trumps reelection as well