Bipartisan Senate group pushes $908 billion COVID-19 relief bill

Mitt Romney.
(Image credit: SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)

A bipartisan group of centrist lawmakers — including Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), Bill Cassidy (R-La.), Mitt Romney (R-Utah), Lisa Murkowski (R-Ala.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) — are pushing a $908 billion stimulus plan that would provide more pandemic relief to Americans.

The price tag is similar to the shot-down $1 trillion package put forth by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) in July but the new framework, Romney said in a Tuesday press conference, would repurpose funds from the CARES Act, meaning that less than half the total figure is new money.

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The proposal doesn't include another round of stimulus checks, but it does offer $300 weekly unemployment benefits and earmarks $160 billion in aid for state, local, and tribal governments, another sticking point in talks.

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It remains to be seen whether McConnell will bring the bill to the floor, or if Democratic leadership will be open to the smaller plan.

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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.