10 things you need to know today: October 21, 2020

Pelosi says stimulus deal still possible as deadline passes, CDC estimates nearly 300,000 excess deaths during pandemic, and more 

Pelosi at a news conference
(Image credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

1. Pelosi backs away from deadline after progress toward coronavirus relief deal

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) walked back her Tuesday deadline for a coronavirus relief deal with the White House, saying that talks were going well so there was still hope a bill could be passed before Election Day. "It isn't that this day is the day we would have a deal," she said in a Bloomberg TV interview. "It's a day when we would have our terms on the table to be able to go to the next step." The news came as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) reportedly told Republican senators privately that he had urged the White House not to agree to a stimulus deal that most members of the party would reject. McConnell's remarks, confirmed by several Republicans, came after President Trump increased his proposed relief package to $1.9 trillion, still short of the $2.2 trillion approved by the House.

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Harold Maass, The Week US

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.