Republicans reject Pelosi's rapid push for next rescue package

Senate Republicans say Congress may eventually need to craft yet another major coronavirus package. But not at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s lightning-quick pace.

While Pelosi pressed yet again on Wednesday for the potential House passage of another relief bill by the end of April — with a big boost for infrastructure — her GOP counterparts in the Senate say Congress needs to hit the pause button.

At a minimum, senior GOP lawmakers argued, Congress should see how the $2 trillion bill passed last week affects the economy and health care system. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell put it this way Wednesday: “We may need a Phase Four, but we're not even fully into Phase Three yet.”

“It’s fine to start talking about it, but it’s not going to be effective until we have the health care crisis under control,” Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) said in an interview. “The immediate need is dealing with the corona crisis because if that’s not dealt with, the economic free fall will continue.”

“Before we jump into another massive bill, let’s take a deep breath,” added Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), who said Congress would “probably” need to pass additional legislation and fix issues with the Phase Three bill at some point.

Yet rather than simply a clash between the two chambers, the next novel coronavirus-related fight is likely to be a more traditional partisan one. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer appears on board with Pelosi’s timeline, emphasizing on MSNBC on Wednesday the need for a fourth coronavirus package and saying, “The end of April is about the right time.”

Privately, some Democrats are still fuming that McConnell’s GOP majority took the lead on the largest emergency rescue bill in history. And they see a major opportunity for the Democratic-led House to take charge of the next chapter in Congress’ epic task of responding to the pandemic.

On a conference call with reporters Wednesday, Pelosi and several committee leaders pitched a robust, climate-heavy infrastructure plan with a price tag close to $800 billion over five years. That package — which looks much like one rolled out by House Democrats in January — includes massive investments in rail and transit, as well as electric vehicle chargers. Democrats say it would amount to a massive jobs program at a time of record unemployment.

The House and Senate are scheduled to return on April 20, although members of both parties have said in recent days that that return date might be ambitious.

“I think we come back April 20, God willing and coronavirus willing,” Pelosi said. “But shortly thereafter, we should be able to move forward.”

When asked about Republican leaders’ wait-and-see approach on Phase Four, Pelosi pointed out that Republicans didn’t mind passing three bills in a single month in the early weeks of the crisis — and that the damage to the economy is likely to be severe even with the $2 trillion rescue measure.

“Nobody was waiting around to see what more needed to be done. We just wanted to stipulate what was needed. Well, now, we know what is needed,” Pelosi said, adding that the next package would “take a few weeks anyways” because Congress is out of session.

Pelosi and Trump also appear to be on the same page when it comes to infrastructure spending, which could undercut Republican reluctance to pursue new stimulus spending now. Yet if past is prologue, a deal could be extraordinarily difficult to achieve: Trump famously walked out of the most recent serious infrastructure meeting with Democrats last spring, fuming over congressional investigations.

And Trump’s administration, for now, is focused far more intensely on implementing the last bill than crafting a new one.

“Given the very urgent needs Americans have for relief and assistance in Phase Three, the administration is focusing on the now things now before dealing with the next things next,” said Eric Ueland, White House legislative affairs director.

Senate Democrats broadly support Pelosi’s agenda but also acknowledge more emergency extensions to the lifelines Congress threw to small businesses and unemployed workers may be a higher priority.

“To me there’s two menus: The more immediate and distinct menu is extending or fixing the CARES Act that we just passed. I suspect there will be pressure for that soon,” Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) said. But, he added: “I respect and support that Speaker Pelosi is saying that maybe this is finally, finally the moment after three years that we will get to work on infrastructure.”

Pelosi said Democrats will unveil similar frameworks for massive spending on education and, later, housing — two other pieces of the Democratic agenda that lawmakers hope make it into a Phase Four bill.

“When we come back, we’ll be ready, and that’ll be when we have the debate and go forward,” Pelosi said. “My motto is: 'Resting is rusting.' We’re just always working to make sure that when the opportunity is there, we are ready.”

The speaker has also vowed all her efforts will be bipartisan. But House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy concluded most of her preferred legislation has “nothing to do with our war against the disease.

Others were harsher. Toomey said the Senate “should not allow Speaker Pelosi to use this as the opportunity to advance her partisan, parochial, liberal wish list.”

“Spending porn” is how Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) described Pelosi’s priorities.

“That's not Louisiana ditch water we're spending, that's taxpayer money,” Kennedy said of last week’s bill on Fox News. “Deficits matter, so I think we need to slow down here and be mindful of what we're doing and let's see if what we just did works.”

Despite the reluctance to immediately move to a Phase Four package, some Republicans acknowledge more action is likely even if it’s not what Pelosi is describing.

While Phase Three allocated $377 billion to small businesses, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla), a key negotiator, said Congress may need to do more if the pandemic lasts for an extended amount of time.

“It’s going to be tough for some of these small businesses to make it, much less survive and overcome, even with the assistance we’re giving them,” Rubio said in an interview. “But I think a lot of that is going to depend on what happens over the next four to six weeks.”

Myah Ward contributed to this report.