Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said Friday that he anticipates the legislative branch will move forward with another coronavirus relief package at the beginning of next year, once the new Congress enters session.
“I think we need to take a careful, calculated decision about what more to do to deal with this coronavirus. We’re throwing money at the search for a vaccine — which is the wise thing to do. We probably need to do another package, certainly more modest than the $3 trillion Nancy Pelosi package,” McConnell told radio host Hugh Hewitt on Friday. “I think that will be something we’ll need to do right at the beginning of the year.”
The Senate majority leader added that he wants to focus on several topics in potential legislation, including small businesses, hospitals, and K-12 and college education.
The latest coronavirus package has been under negotiation for months between Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who initially entered the process with a mandate from House Democrats in the form of the $3.4 trillion Heroes Act. When it was passed, the Heroes Act received only one Republican vote, Congressman Pete King (R-NY), who explained to Fox News back in May he didn’t agree with a lot in the bill, but voted in favor of it because he felt New York had no choice.
Throughout the negotiation process, McConnell has not been involved, and according to The Washington Post, warned Senate Republicans in mid-October that Pelosi was not engaging in good faith discussions with the Trump administration.
Earlier this week, Pelosi hinted that Democrats were indeed interested in pursuing a relief package deal after the election, even before January, according to Politico.
“Why would we be talking to them if we didn’t want a bill?” said Pelosi.
During his interview with the radio host, McConnell also affirmed his belief that Republicans have a 50-50 shot at retaining a majority in the Senate, a comment he said he’s been making “all year” because of the number of Republican-held seats at stake.
“We elected a lot of new Republican senators in 2014, and so now we have a lot of exposure,” he said. “I’ve actually been saying 50-50 for well over a year.”
McConnell also explained that he moved forward with the nomination of Justice Amy Coney Barrett after the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg because the Constitution treats the Senate and president as “co-partners” for the sake of filling a vacancy on the court.
“It’s not surprising when you have a Senate of the same party as the president, there’s a lot more willingness to move and to move quickly, and that’s what we did with regard to the Ginsburg vacancy,” said McConnell, who called the appointment timeline, from nomination to confirmation, “well within the norm” from a historical standpoint.
“I’m glad we were able to do it before the election so the American people can weigh the consequences of handing the Senate over to the hard Left, which is what the Democratic Party is these days,” said the majority leader.