White House regroups after both parties reject coronavirus relief proposal


White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin sent a letter Sunday urging Congress to redirect $130 billion in unused Paycheck Protection Program funding while negotiations continue on broader new coronavirus relief. The appeal came after members of both parties rejected the administration's new $1.8 trillion stimulus proposal.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told fellow House Democrats in a letter on Sunday that negotiations with the White House on a new round of coronavirus relief remained at an impasse. Pelosi said Trump's $1.8 trillion proposal was "grossly inadequate," partly because it did not include the $75 billion and a new national plan for testing, tracing, and virus treatment that Democrats have demanded.
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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.
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