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WASHINGTON: U.S. Senate Democratic chief Chuck Schumer stated on Wednesday that he and House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi have formally invited Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and different Senate Republicans to bipartisan talks on new COVID-19 reduction laws.
“Our colleagues face a simple choice. They put the election behind them and work across the aisle to get something done, or they can remain in their partisan corner,” Schumer stated on the Senate ground.
Efforts to hammer out a deal to ship assist to Americans and companies reeling from the coronavirus pandemic have made little progress, together with a pre-election drive by Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to agree on a bundle of round $2 trillion. Senate Republicans have rejected the concept of spending a lot.
Earlier on Wednesday, McConnell stated Congress ought to intention for settlement on objects the place there’s little disagreement. But he blamed Democrats for blocking earlier Senate Republican efforts to approve spending packages of $500 billion, which Democrats have referred to as insufficient.
“Republicans stand ready to deliver this urgent aid. Let’s fund all the programs where there’s not even real disagreement. Just this once, where there’s no disagreement. And let’s do it now. We just need Democrats to finally get serious about this,” McConnell stated.
Schumer and his fellow Senate Democrats additionally unveiled new laws to ramp up the nationwide provide of private protecting tools (PPE) for healthcare and different frontline staff.
The New York Democrat stated the laws would authorize the strategic nationwide stockpile to buy $10 billion of PPE together with N-95 respirators, gloves, robes, masks, face shields and surgical masks. The invoice additionally requires the invocation of the Defense Production Act to develop industrial capability and gives $1 billion in grants to assist small companies help in PPE manufacturing, he stated.
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