Biden wants Congress to pass emergency COVID aid this year
WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — President-elect Joe Biden is calling on Congress to enact billions of dollars in emergency COVID-19 assistance before the year's end, according to a senior aide who warned Friday that “there's no more room for delay.”
Biden transition aide Jen Psaki delivered the remarks ahead of Biden's first in-person meeting since winning the election with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer. The incoming Democratic president will host the top Democrats in the House and Senate Friday afternoon at his makeshift transition headquarters in a downtown Wilmington, Delaware, theater.
Pelosi told a news conference Friday that she and Schumer would be talking with Biden about “the urgency of crushing of virus,” including the lame-duck session of Congress, legislation on funding the government and COVID relief.
But prospects for new virus aid this year remain uncertain. Pelosi said talks with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and GOP leadership on Thursday did not produce any consensus on a new virus aid package.
“That didn’t happen, but hopefully it will,” she said.
Biden's new governing team is facing intense pressure to approve another COVID-19 relief bill, come up with a clear plan to distribute millions of doses of a prospective vaccine, and Biden is just days away from unveiling the first of his Cabinet picks, which are subject to Senate confirmation.
Psaki said that Biden, Pelosi and Schumer are already working “in lockstep” to push for an pandemic relief bill before Congress adjourns for the year, a period known as a lame-duck session.
“They’re in lockstep agreement that there needs to be emergency assistance and aid during the lame-duck session to help families, to help small businesses," Psaki...