AOC says she won't vote for interim coronavirus relief bill in its current reported form

Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez doesn't plan to throw her support behind the interim coronavirus relief package congressional leaders have been negotiating for nearly two weeks that is expected to have a price tag of roughly half a trillion dollars.

Ms Ocasio-Cortez said while she has not seen any draft legislation of the follow-up package to the $2.2trn so-called CARES Act from March, she is not inclined to vote in favour of it.

“If it matches up with what has been reported, I will not support this bill,” Ms Ocasio-Cortez said.

The Bronx, New York, freshman was the only Democrat to go on record opposing the CARES Act.

Ms Ocasio-Cortez' frustration reflects growing dissatisfaction among Congressional Progressive Caucus members with the federal government's response to the health crisis, which they say has been too "incremental" and sluggish.

There is a “level of concern that exists” within the CPC that the bill being negotiated by Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and their Republican counterparts in Congress and in the White House does not go far enough to address skyrocketing unemployment rates among the working class and racial disparities in how relief is being distributed.

House Democrats have a full-caucus conference call later Monday afternoon, where leaders will brief the rank-and-file on the current state of negotiations for the interim bill.

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