Talks for the COVID-19 relief package remain stalled in Congress as Democrats rebuffed a proposal from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to not include state and local aid and liability protections.
McConnell announced Tuesday that Congress should agree to pass elements that have bipartisan support such as more money for the Payroll Protection Program and assistance to providers, but ax liability protections and local and state government aid.
“It remains my view that we ought to pass what we can agree on,” McConnell said.
McConnell also defended the need for installing liability protections for businesses related to the pandemic, which is also a major priority for the hospital industry.
“This is a one-time liability relief related to a once-in-a-hundred-year pandemic that kicks in for a period of time and then goes away,” McConnell said. “We can’t get the economy back to normal if we have an epidemic of lawsuits on the heels of the pandemic.”
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McConnell said that the next administration is going to ask for another relief package in the next Congress, which would give lawmakers another opportunity to take on state and local aid and liability protections.
But Democratic congressional leaders rebuffed McConnell.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor Wednesday that he and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi continue to want a $908 billion framework adopted by a group of bipartisan House and Senate lawmakers.
Pelosi and Schumer also shot down a $916 billion offer from the White House.
“The president’s proposal starts by cutting the unemployment insurance proposal being discussed by bipartisan members of the House and Senate from $180 billion to $40 billion,” the lawmakers said in a statement Tuesday. “That is unacceptable.”
Bipartisan lawmakers put together a summary of their proposal, the framework of which was released on Dec. 1.
The summary obtained by CNN proposes adding $35 billion to a $175 billion provider relief fund passed as part of the CARES Act.
Of that $35 billion, lawmakers propose setting aside $7 billion for rural providers and $1 billion for tribes and tribal organizations.
But the summary doesn't fully address liability, only that it should include an agreement made in good faith. When lawmakers introduced the framework, they proposed giving a short-term liability protection that gives states time to develop their own laws.
The summary also aims to make changes to how relief funding is used. It clarifies reporting guidelines such as a clarification that the relief fund can be used for staffing and childcare staff.
It also allows systems to move targeted provider relief fund distributions within their system, according to the summary.
The lawmakers also want to include a directive for Health and Human Services to consider the appropriate distribution of funds. It calls for HHS to prioritize providers under-represented in previous allocations or “are at risk of imminent closure,” the summary said.
The summary also proposes to extend telehealth flexibility for providers through Dec. 31, 2021. The Trump administration has given providers more flexibility to get reimbursement from Medicare for telehealth services, but it cannot permanently expand that flexibility without congressional approval.
Congressional leaders have expressed interest in attaching another relief package to a spending bill that must be passed by Dec. 18 to avoid a government shutdown.