Schumer calls latest round of coronavirus relief talks most productive yet, but sides still 'not close'

Chuck Schumer.
(Image credit: Samuel Corum/Getty Images)

Congress ended the week in a deadlock after days of negotiating the next iteration of the CARES coronavirus relief bill, allowing the $600/week unemployment boost to expire without a replacement plan in place. As a result, nearly 30 million U.S. workers will now have a lapse in their unemployment benefits. But talks continued on Saturday, with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) sitting down for several hours with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.

There's still nothing imminent, but the four negotiators did suggest there was a little more movement Saturday, with Schumer calling it the most productive meeting yet. "Now each side knows where they're at," he said.

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Work will continue Sunday with staff only meetings, and Pelosi, Schumer, Mnuchin, and Meadows will meet again on Monday.

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Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.