It's been 125 days since the House passed the $3.4 trillion HEROES Act, which Sen. Mitch McConnell has refused to take up, and it's 13 days until the government runs out of funding with the end of the fiscal year. Oh, and the election is in 47 days. On Thursday, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer announced a vote on a continuing resolution (CR) to keep government funded will come to the floor early next week. That should give the Senate plenty of time to get it done and to the Oval Office, along with everyone's hopes and prayers that Trump doesn't do something stupid with it. Like refuse to sign it. It's already coming with some uncertainty—according to Politico's sources, the funding is extended until Dec. 18. That's putting a lot of faith into the system and into Trump's willingness to participate in a peaceful transition of government, assuming he loses. The power to shut government down is not one a madman backed into a corner should be granted. We've been there before with him.
The impetus for making the CR as clean and drama-free as possible is certainly recognizable—there's enough angst already present in Congress and the White House over continuing COVID-19 relief. Scratch that: There's enough angst in the House and in the White House. The Senate controlled by McConnell and Republicans doesn't seem to give a damn one way or the other, and if pressed, would probably opt for doing nothing. How this could be with enough vulnerable Republicans to see the majority flip in November is puzzling, but that's just a reflection of who McConnell is and how much sway the hardliners have with him. The one countervailing force here is Trump, who put the ball in McConnell's court yesterday when he demanded Republicans "Go for the much higher numbers." That's not happening this week. Congress is gone for the weekend.
At this point, Pelosi is rightly standing by her minimum $2.2 trillion bottom line, pointing out that the need has "only grown" since the House passed the HEROES Act precisely because of Republican refusal to act. “Since that time, my members will attest, the needs have only grown since May 15, four months ago,” Pelosi said. “The needs for the small businesses, for the restaurants, for transportation and the rest.” The airlines would agree—they met with White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows Thursday, lobbying for further help before payroll assistance to that industry expires at the end of the month.
As of now, Senate Republicans say they won't go past the skinny bill they offered up last week, which ended up at about $650 billion total. “I think that, my personal opinion, not much is going to happen between now and the election,” said Republican Sen. Mike Braun of Indiana, seemingly without much concern. It's going to take a lot more pressure from Trump to make those guys budge.
Pelosi has said that the House won't adjourn until a deal is done, though that doesn't mean they'll stay in town. Next week has little on it besides the continuing resolution; a plan to vote on marijuana decriminalization that was going to be on the schedule has been postponed until after the election.
So, after what looked like some movement Wednesday, the stalemate seems to have settled back in. While economic desperation, unemployment, hunger, fear, and despair deepen.