NYAPRS Note: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi floated a proposal today that pushed for almost $1 trillion in a CARES 2 proposal to the states, adding that such assistance could arrive in as many as three separate “tranches” — providing aid to hard-hit states, counties and municipalities — and could extend for three or four years, providing long-term help as the economy stabilizes. The National Governor’s Association has pegged that number as at least $500 billion.
And while Senate leader Mitch McConnell has been offering staunch opposition for funding for states, “he said in an interview on Monday, it’s ‘highly likely’ the next coronavirus response bill will aid local governments whose budgets have been decimated by lockdowns and now face spiraling deficits. But to unlock that money, McConnell said he will “insist” Congress limit the liabilities of health care workers, business owners and employees from lawsuits as they reopen in the coming weeks and months.
See below for pieces describing Congressional leaders’ statements and NYS Governor Cuomo’s strident call for such an agreement. NYS released documents over the weekend, forecasting possible $8 billion in cuts to state aid and a 10% decrease to state agencies should federal relief be withheld. NYAPRS and a broad array of advocacy groups are continuing to press Congress to provide desperately needed aid to the states.
Pelosi: State And Local Governments May Need $1T In Pandemic Aid
By Caitlin Emma Politico April 30, 2020 1:17pm
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi suggested today that states and local governments may need as much as $1 trillion in additional federal relief to help them weather the coronavirus pandemic.
“I’ve talked about almost a trillion dollars right there — I would hope so,” she said, when asked about the need for state and local aid during her weekly press conference. “But we do have other issues that we want to deal with.“
Pelosi’s estimate of $1 trillion appears to be on the higher end of state and local needs, coming after the National Governors Association warned Congress that states will need at least $500 billion.
The left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has warned that states could be facing budget shortfalls that total $650 billion over three years. And the U.S. Conference of Mayors has called for at least $250 billion.
Congress has already passed four bills totaling nearly $3 trillion in response to the pandemic. Senate Republicans are unlikely to support such a high figure for states, which are wrestling with evaporating state revenue and increased costs.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has expressed skepticism about bailing out states with existing budget issues. But he recently said he would be open to another package that provides state and local funding, as long as it includes liability protections to ward off a wave of lawsuits once states reopen their economies.
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Pelosi Floats Almost $1t For States In Next Relief Package
By Mike Lillis – The Hill April 30, 2020
Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that Democrats will push for including almost $1 trillion in the next coronavirus relief package to help states and local governments hit hard by the pandemic.
That figure, Pelosi said, would likely be the single largest line-item of the Democrats’ next emergency package, known as CARES 2, which is also expected to include hundreds of billions of dollars more to help workers, businesses and families weather the crisis.
“We’re not going to be able to cover all of it, but to the extent that we can keep the states and localities sustainable, that’s our goal,” Pelosi told reporters in the basement of the near-deserted Capitol.
It means the Democrats’ next emergency relief proposal is likely to approximate the massive size of the initial CARES Act, adopted March 27, which provided $2.2 trillion in emergency help largely for major industries and small businesses left devastated by the economic fallout of the global pandemic.
It also foreshadows a fierce fight with Republicans in the Senate, where GOP leaders had rejected any new funding for state and local governments in the last “interim” coronavirus bill, enacted last week, and are wary that any new help for states going forward would simply bail out governors for fiscal mismanagement preceding the health crisis.
“That strikes me as a pretty outrageous number, just for state and local support,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) told reporters in the Capitol, shortly after Pelosi floated the $1 trillion figure. “We’ve already provided $150 billion in CARES 1.”
Senate Republicans, he warned last week, won’t support “revenue replacement for state governments” or “solving their pension problems.”
McConnell’s critics have been quick to point out that Kentucky, where the Senate leader is seeking reelection this year, receives many billions of dollars more from Washington than its residents pay in federal taxes.
And Pelosi on Thursday dismissed McConnell’s opposition, saying Democrats are prepared to go to the mat to ensure that medical workers and other first responders are not laid off as a result of the economic crunch facing states around the country, which have seen tax revenues plummet amid the crisis.
“They’re risking their lives to save lives, and now they’re going to lose their jobs? It’s just stunning, and we have to address it,” Pelosi said. “This isn’t about any other budget issues for states; it’s about the coronavirus outlays [and] revenue lost.”
Pelosi said that assistance could arrive in as many as three separate “tranches” — providing aid to hard-hit states, counties and municipalities — and could extend for three or four years, providing long-term help as the economy stabilizes.
“It’s not just for one year,” she said. “It’s over time.”
Aside from the state funding, Democrats in CARES 2 are also eyeing vast new spending for direct cash payments to individuals, medical equipment and unemployment insurance, which has taken on new gravity as roughly 30 million people have filed for jobless benefits over the last six weeks alone.
Democrats are also fighting to include tens of billions of dollars to expand broadband services around the country, particularly in rural and other underserved regions, where students and medical providers have had a tougher time accessing the internet during the crisis.
“The only way you can have online learning is with broadband,” said Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.), the House majority whip and leading champion of the broadband provisions.
The timing of CARES 2 remains unclear. While the House was initially scheduled to be in session next week, Democratic leaders scrapped that plan on Tuesday, citing the advice of the Capitol physician. And Pelosi on Thursday set a tentative return date for the week of May 11, although committees are expected to be back earlier to work on CARES 2.
“We’re not coming back this week. Our plan is to come back the following week,” she said.
Clyburn, who is heading a newly created committee overseeing coronavirus spending, said that panel will likely meet next week in Washington.
Amid the uncertainty, Pelosi on Thursday ruled out at least one strategy: The House, she said, would not take up another interim bill, like last week’s $484 billion package, which went largely toward replenishing small business loans under the Paycheck Protection Program.
“We’re all for that, and we just did do an intervention. But we must do a CARES bill now. We cannot put that off,” she said. “Our next plan will be CARES 2.”
McConnell dangles aid to states — with a catch
The Senate majority leader said in an interview that he was open to a deal with Democrats on the next relief package.
By BURGESS EVERETT Politico April 27, 2020
Mitch McConnell is open to cutting a deal to provide reeling states and cities with relief during the pandemic-fueled recession. But it will come at a price.
In an interview on Monday, the Senate majority leader said it’s “highly likely” the next coronavirus response bill will aid local governments whose budgets have been decimated by lockdowns and now face spiraling deficits. But to unlock that money, McConnell said he will “insist” Congress limit the liabilities of health care workers, business owners and employees from lawsuits as they reopen in the coming weeks and months.
“We probably will do another bill. What I’m saying is it won’t just be about money,” McConnell said. “The next pandemic coming will be the lawsuit pandemic in the wake of this one. So we need to prevent that now when we have the opportunity to do it.”
In acknowledging that states like New York and New Jersey can count on more federal aid in the next massive relief bill, the Kentucky Republican is cracking the door to an agreement with congressional Democrats after taking a hard line with his recent suggestion that states go “the bankruptcy route.”
But as befits his reputation for tough tactics, he said that would demand that his liability proposal be included in any deal with Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). Similarly, Pelosi has said that any new coronavirus bill will have to include money for local governments.
“I’m open to additional assistance. It’s not just going to be a check, though, you get my point?” McConnell said. “We’re not writing a check to send down to states to allow them to, in effect, finance mistakes they’ve made unrelated to the coronavirus.”
McConnell also slightly softened his stance that perhaps some states might go bankrupt rather than be rescued by the federal government. But he did not back away entirely from last week’s comments that he would be in favor of some states declaring bankruptcy to escape crippling debts.
Under siege from Democrats seeking to oust him as majority leader in November, McConnell said the entire episode was “a classic case of taking things out of context” and that he never expected many states to use that option even if it were available to them.
“The fundamental point I was trying to make is that we’re not interested in borrowing money from future generations to help states solve problems that they created themselves,” McConnell said. “The bankruptcy suggestion would have been optional anyway. I wasn’t assuming many of them were going to take that option.”
Taken together, McConnell’s comments suggest another large recovery package is not out of the question in the coming weeks despite some GOP complaints about rising deficits.
Senate Republicans like Bill Cassidy of Louisiana also have endorsed sending billions more to states, and several other GOP senators have expressed a clear preference to start hammering out a new bill.
But it’s still going to be a herculean effort. And McConnell said he hasn’t talked to Pelosi about it yet.
“As soon as we can reach an agreement, we’ll do it,” he said.
McConnell fought Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Pelosi’s push for state and local money in the most recent $484 billion round of aid, a demand Democrats dropped in return for more hospital and testing money to go along with small business funds. President Donald Trump signed the bill into law last week and Democrats immediately clamored for more action.
As long as the Senate was in recess, it would have been difficult if not impossible to include aid to states anyway, because one conservative senator could have easily blocked such a bill. The Senate will return on May 4, limiting individual senators’ leverage.
But McConnell’s resistance to more money for states and cities also reflects deep skepticism among Republicans about sending money to states run by Democrats, even though GOP-controlled states also want assistance. Just on Monday, Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) trashed the idea: “We’re supposed to go bail them out? That’s not right.”
Yet Pelosi said that sentiment misunderstood what Democrats were trying to do. She said funds for state and local governments was about helping the front-line “heroes” during the pandemic like firefighters and health workers.
“We want to, again, make sure that these people who are risking their lives to save other people’s lives are not risking their jobs as well because the state and localities cannot pay them,” Pelosi said on MSNBC on Monday.
Asked about her insistence on that money, McConnell responded with similar rhetoric about protecting businesses and employees from lawsuits.
“We can’t afford to not protect all of the brave people who have been at work during all of this,” he said. “It’s going to take a certain amount of courage to open your business up again if you think there’s a lawyer right out on the curb waiting to go after you if he sees somebody within 6 feet of someone else.”
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Gov. Andrew Cuomo Slams Senators for Lack of State Funding
By Alexa Lardieri, US News and World Report April 29, 2020
NEW YORK — Gov. Andrew Cuomo lashed out on Wednesday at the federal government, accusing senators of “ugly and reprehensible” partisanship.
The New York governor has criticized lawmakers before for the lack of funding for state governments in recently-passed coronavirus relief legislation. He specifically called out Sen. Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, who has suggested that states declare bankruptcy.
The coronavirus has wreaked havoc on America’s economy, leaving states with severe budget shortfalls. The Senate majority leader said last week that there is no “desire on the Republican side to bail out state pensions by borrowing money from future generations.”
McConnell’s office then put out a press release titled “Stopping Blue State Bailouts,” which Cuomo suggested was McConnell’s way of singling out some of the hardest-hit states, which include Democratic states like California and New York.
“Mitch McConnell and his partisan brigade are dividing our country,” Cuomo tweeted. “Their not-so-subtle message is: The states with more COVID cases don’t deserve help from the states with fewer cases b/c they are Democrats. This is ugly and reprehensible — it’s also wrong on the facts.”
Cuomo said at the briefing that McConnell “is rallying the partisan troops,” referring to Florida Republican Gov. Rick Scott, who said Monday, “We’re supposed to go bail them out? That’s not right.”
“Who is ‘we’ and who is ‘them,'” the governor asked. “Them, the people who had coronavirus … We without the virus are supposed to bail out those people who have the virus? What an ugly sentiment.”
Health officials report more than 299,700 cases of COVID-19 in New York and more than 22,900 deaths. Cuomo reported that 330 people died on Tuesday and about 930 new cases of the virus were confirmed.
The federal government, Cuomo said, wants “to fund corporate America,” like airlines, public companies and hotels, while he wants to “fund working Americans,” such as teachers, police officers and health care workers.
“If human suffering and death doesn’t defeat Washington insider politics, then what will?” the governor asked.
Coronavirus in NYC Causes Uncertainty
Cuomo also announced during his briefing that he will be signing an executive order allowing elective surgeries to resume in counties with a low risk of coronavirus. Nearly three dozen counties, mostly in upstate, central and western New York will be permitted to perform elective procedures.
Additionally, he said he asked the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to come up with a plan to clean and disinfect subway trains every night. The governor also announced the results of antibody tests conducted on 2,000 New York firefighters, emergency medical technicians and police officers.
Results show that 17.1% of the FDNY and EMTs, as well as 10.5% of the NYPD tested positive for COVID-19 antibodies, indicating that they contracted the virus and have since recovered. Additional testing of a sample of 1,000 public transit workers will begin next month.