Weekly Legislative Update
 Week of October 19, 2020  
  
Congressional Outlook

The House is in recess this week and is scheduled to return to Washington on November 16 while the Senate is back in session. The Senate will vote on two separate proposals which include targeted COVID-19 relief-both bills, however, are unlikely to receive the 60 votes needed to advance to a final vote in the upper chamber. The first bill is the Continuing the Paycheck Protection Program Act, which provides $257.64 billion in funds to support PPP and PPP Second Draw Loans and makes numerous changes to "improve" the PPP. The bill text is available here; a one-page summary on the bill is available here; and a section-by-section summary is available here.
 
The second bill is the Delivering Immediate Relief to America's Families, Schools and Small Businesses Act, which provides roughly $500 billion in COVID-19 relief. This bill is identical to the "skinny" relief package that the Senate failed to advance on September 10 by a vote of 52-47. The legislation contains no additional relief funding for state and local governments, however, the bill extends the period to utilize Coronavirus Relief Funds (authorized and appropriated in the CARES Act) from December 30, 2020 to September 30, 2021. The bill includes additional coronavirus response supplemental appropriations: $5 billion for the "Payments to States for the Child Care and Development Block Grant" program; $10 billion for the "Back to Work Child Care Grants" program; $47 billion for the "Public Health and Social Services Emergency Fund" for vaccine, therapeutic, and diagnostic development and testing, contact tracing, and surveillance; $105 billion for the "Education Stabilization Fund"; $20 billion for USDA farm programs to prevent, prepare for, and respond to the coronavirus; and $500 million for "Fisheries Disaster Assistance." The bill also includes a restoration and reduction to $300 per week, from $600/week, of the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation program established under the CARES Act, through December 27, 2020; and employer liability provisions that extend to local government agencies. The bill text is available here and a summary is available here.
 
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) set a deadline of Tuesday, October 20 to reach an agreement with the White House on a much larger coronavirus relief package. President Donald Trump said that he is ready to match the $2.2 trillion spending levels demanded by Congressional Democrats - or go higher - despite repeated warnings by Leader McConnell that most Republican senators will oppose a measure that large. The price-tag is not the only obstacle. Speaker Pelosi said on Sunday that the two sides are still haggling over language on a national plan to control the virus. Differences also remain on several key issues, including aid to state and local governments and GOP demands for an employer liability shield, which have stalled a deal for months. Tuesday's deadline "only relates to if we want to get it done before the election, which we do," Pelosi said, indicating they could continue talking about passing a stimulus measure after November 3.
The Senate Judiciary Committee will vote Thursday morning on Amy Coney Barrett's nomination to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Leader McConnell last week said Barrett has enough support to win Senate confirmation to the Supreme Court and he expects to bring her nomination to the floor beginning this Friday.  
 
The second and final presidential debate between President Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden will take place on Thursday, Oct. 22 from 9-10:30pm ET at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee. Kristen Welker, NBC News' White House correspondent, will be the sole moderator of the debate. The six major topics chosen by Kirsten Welker to be covered in the debate include: Fighting COVID-19; American Families; Race in America; Climate Change; National Security; and Leadership.
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