ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Idling in her car in the school pick-up line while she waited for her son to be dismissed from class, Amber Watson is running on empty.
As past-due bills pile up, Watson says she’s given up hope that Congress can strike a deal on another round of COVID-19 relief before Election Day. She’ll have to wait until her next unemployment payment before she can refill her gas tank.
“We’re probably going to be walking to school until Friday,” she said.
The single mom of a kindergartener was laid off from her job in March just as the COVID-19 pandemic closures began.
With her internet already shut off due to late payments and her phone likely next, she’s not sure how she’ll be able to continue applying for jobs.
Watson wishes Congress could at least agree to pass another round of stimulus checks now and then work out a separate deal on remaining relief later.
“If we made them live like how a lot of Floridians—and well Americans—are living right now, they would have it passed tomorrow because there’s no way they’d be able to live off $189 a week, with a child, with a mortgage,” Watson said.
“But they’re way up there and they don’t see what’s really happening.”
The clock is ticking for Congress to approve a COVID-19 relief package after Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi set a Tuesday deadline to reach a deal to restore benefits before Election Day.
Pelosi reported some progress Monday after spending an hour on the phone with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who is negotiating for the Republican Trump administration.
Further work, Pelosi hopes, will offer “clarity on whether we will be able to pass a bill before the election,” spokesman Drew Hammill said.
While the Democrats are pushing for a package with a price tag of $2.2 trillion, the White House is sticking to $1.8 trillion. The two sides remain at odds over a national COVID testing strategy, tax credits for low-income workers, and aid to state and local governments.
But they do agree on the need for another round of $1,200 stimulus checks and more enhanced unemployment benefits, which expired at the end of July.
However, even if Pelosi and Mnuchin can strike a deal, it remains to be seen if Senate Republicans would get on board. They plan to vote on their own, much smaller $500 billion aid package as soon as Tuesday.
Asked Monday if he’d spoken to Senate Leader Mitch McConnell, Trump said he didn’t want to comment on that.
“But the Republicans will come along,” Trump added.
The last coronavirus relief package, the $1.8 trillion bipartisan CARES Act, passed in March by an overwhelming margin just as the economy went into lockdown amid fear and uncertainty about the virus.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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