The Senate adjourned Monday night until the week after the Nov. 3 election, officially ending all hopes of COVID-19 economic relief legislation being passed before voting ends, and probably much longer. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) had made clear he did not want to vote on a roughly $2 trillion package being negotiated by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and, on behalf of President Trump, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. Trump had sent mixed messages, but tended toward enthusiasm for an expensive package. Pelosi threw in the towel Tuesday.
"For a long time now, congressional Democrats have laid out a strategic plan to crush the virus," Pelosi said in a letter to House Democrats. "The White House and Mitch McConnell have resisted, and on Sunday, Mark Meadows told us why saying 'We're not going to control the pandemic.'" The White House, she added, "has failed miserably — not by accident, but by decision" — and while the House will "continue to put pen to paper" on legislation, "the president's words only have meaning if he can get Mitch McConnell to take his hand off the pause button."
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