The stimulus negotiations have made a ton of progress and to the surprise of many it looks like the new proposal will include stimulus checks.
But this deal has still not been finalized and there still are some hurdles to clear.
In fact, there are so many big issues still to iron out that the government shut down may occur.
According to Senate Majority Whip John Thune, it looks like there is a possibility of a brief government shut down that could occur over the weekend.
“I know people who are gonna object to that, that want to keep pressure on the process until we get a deal. So, it would take consent obviously to do a short term CR,” Thune said.
Why would there be a shut down?
Democrats feel that placing another extension, even a very short extension, on government the spending bill will take a lot of the pressure off Republicans to act swiftly on the stimulus bill.
Right now, it seems that there are two main contentious issues.
First, there is the dispute over the amount of the new stimulus checks.
It seems that many lawmakers, especially Republicans, favor sending out $600 stimulus checks. But many people question whether or not $600 is enough to help out families that are truly in need.
Many Democrats are insisting that stimulus checks be at least the same amount that they were last time they went out at $1,200.
And we heard President Trump voice support for $2,000 stimulus checks although recently he has been told to turn that support down.
The other issue with the checks is how will they be targeted?
Will there be a new income structure eligibility for the checks, especially if they go out at $600?
These are the pressing issues that lawmakers currently face with stimulus checks.
“Checks is complicated,” Thune said.
“Designing that in a way that maximizes the amount that an individual or family can receive and try and target it to the people who need it the most. I think is right now one of the biggest challenges. But hopefully they can get that done…”
But the new emerging issue has to do with the emergency funds.
Republicans are worried that Democrats are trying to allocate these funds as a backdoor way of getting aid to local/state governments.
As part of the negotiating process, Democrats dropped aid to local and state governments and Republicans dropped their request for liability shields for coronavirus related lawsuits.
But now the emergency aid funds could act as a pseudo-local aid bill depending on how it is implemented and that is what is hanging up Republicans.
“Figuring out [how emergency aid gets] distributed and putting guardrails in there to make sure that it’s not just a slush fund for state and local governments which would create a lot of problems on our side,” Thune said.
If a government shut down would happen, it’s not clear that it would be a disaster but it could pose some problems.
Thune commented on the prospect of a shut down: “Government shutdowns are never good. If it’s for a very short amount of time on a weekend hopefully it’s not going to be something that would be all that harmful, but that being said, the preferable route is to keep the government open and get this done and get it done quickly.”
Today is going to be a big day regardless of how it turns out so I will keep you updated on the outcome later this afternoon.
Related
Trump asked to pull back support for $2,000 stimulus checks
Last minute problems delaying stimulus bill
Will the second stimulus checks be limited to $600?
Daniel Gillaspia is the Founder of UponArriving.com and the credit card app, WalletFlo. He is a former attorney turned travel expert covering destinations along with TSA, airline, and hotel policies. Since 2014, his content has been featured in publications such as National Geographic, Smithsonian Magazine, and CNBC. Read my bio.
