The NPR Politics Podcast - Pelosi Vows To Bring Coronavirus Bill To House Floor As Republicans Push For Changes

Episode Date: March 12, 2020

Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the House will vote Thursday on a package of measures to address the coronavirus despite pushback from the top House Republican that the bill "comes up short." This episode: White House correspondent Tamara Keith, congressional correspondent Kelsey Snell, and White House correspondent Franco Ordoñez.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Hey NPR listeners, this is Ben and Claire and we're currently watching our dad a small grains farmer from Minnesota answer questions in front of the Ways and Means Committee about US-China trade policy. This podcast was recorded at 2.39pm on Thursday, March 12th. Things may have changed by the time you hear this. Okay, here's the show. Go dad! That's awesome. That committee room is the coldest room in the entire Capitol. It's amazing how cold it is. Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast. I'm Tamara Keith. I cover the White House.

I'm Franco Ordonez. I also cover the White House. And I'm Kelsey Snell. I cover Congress. And in the hours since our last podcast, which was just last night, the ground has shifted even further. The NBA, NHL, other sports leagues have suspended games. Tours are off in Washington, D.C. New York canceled its St. Patrick's Day parade and is shutting down Broadway, all because of coronavirus. And another thing happened.

House Democrats released their plan to combat the economic fallout from this. So, Kelsey, where does that stand now? Well, you know how we give that disclaimer at the top that things may have changed by the time you hear this podcast? This is one of those days. We saw the bill last night after 11 o'clock, and it is a long bill and it is a fairly sweeping bill that includes changes to unemployment benefits, paid family leave, paid sick leave, additional food security measures to make sure that particularly children who don't have access to food are able to eat if they are not in school. And just a really wide ranging set of policies that Democrats want to get passed. They were supposed to have a hearing to kind of set up the vote structure this morning, but they decided to put that on pause to continue negotiations with the White House.

And as we sit here right now, what do we say, 2.40ish p.m. in Washington, D.C.? They're still talking, but they still say they're voting on something today. Wow. So, Franco, the president addressed the nation last night, and he talked about some of those ideas, but he talked about a lot of other ideas too. So what's up with that? Obviously, one of the big things was the travel restrictions about many countries in Europe. But on the economic front, right. I mean, President Trump said he was going to take steps to help the economy. He wanted to help those workers who were sick and needed to be quarantined. He wanted to make sure workers who were sick and needed to be quarantined. He wanted to make sure that they'd be financially okay. He said that he was going to defer tax

payments for individuals and businesses in some of these industries that were impacted the most. And he's looking to provide billions in loans for small businesses. And kind of in this area that we're all, this sticky area, he wants Congress to consider this massive payroll tax holiday. But, you know, those proposals, you know, they haven't been going so great. And frankly, they haven't really calmed the stock market either. I guess we should just explain that if everything is shutting down, if social distancing is happening, and if the public health system is being taxed heavily, not literally taxed, but just stressed by coronavirus, then people aren't going to be spending money. Revenue is going to be going down. People won't be able to go to their jobs.

They won't be some of them won't be getting paid or businesses will be paying people even though they are no longer generating revenue. It's it has a lot of spillover effects into the economy, into state government budgets, everywhere. Everywhere. Yeah. Everywhere. I mean, you got like all these sporting arenas that are not going to have thousands and thousands of fans, you know, buying hot dogs and buying Cokes and watching the games. These are huge, huge revenue factors for these communities where they are. And for that, all that to go away is a massive issue. Right. And that's why Democrats say they are not interested in doing a payroll tax holiday right now. What they're talking about, these paid leave benefits, these sick leave benefits,

extending a food stamp program to benefit kids who get the free and reduced lunch program in schools. They say they're doing these things right now because they want to address the people who aren't working, who are going to be hit hardest by this. And they say a payroll tax holiday, by and large, would benefit people who are still getting paid. And I mean, because if you're getting a break on your payroll, that means you're getting a paycheck. Yeah. I mean, I guess part of the theory here also is to make it economically feasible for people to do social distancing. Right. One of the things that the Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal said to me yesterday was that we want to make people come out of the

shadows, make it feel like they can come forward and get tested or they can self-quarantine. Because at this point right now, they're hearing from constituents who say, you know, even if I was sick, what am I supposed to do? I still have rent to pay or a mortgage to pay. I've got to keep the lights on. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, the Trump administration is considering other steps, including possibly declaring a national emergency over the virus.

You know, the president told reporters today that he was considering a declaration under the Stafford Act, which would make it a lot easier to release funds. I mean, frankly, how the president handles this moment is going to be a key issue for Americans. This is an issue that has been very important to the president. He wants to show the administration is under control. And frankly, largely, he's staking his reelection on a strong economy. And all these problems undermine that message. All right. We are going to take a quick break. And when we get back, how the ideas from Congress and the White House match up and how they don't.

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Join NPR's Invisibilia for the first episode tests are available, we should say. Which is a big problem. We should be clear. And they seem to also agree on the concept of I mean, the president said himself last night in his speech that he wanted to make sure that the treatment was covered. So some of that should include potentially these expansions in the Medicaid services that Democrats are talking about. But from there, things get sticky. The negotiations have been happening largely between House Speaker Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. And we're just not totally clear on whether or not the White House has signed off on these things. Democrats say that Mnuchin has been in the loop since Wednesday morning. They were moving forward with some degree of expectation that the White House supported what they were doing. But things

don't look that way right now. I want to turn to how the other side of Pennsylvania Avenue is looking at this. And President Trump was asked about the Democrats bill today. He said he didn't support it. No, because there are things in there that have nothing to do with what we're talking about. So, you know, it's not a it's not a way for them to get some of the goodies that they haven't been able to get for the last 25 years. What do means by goodies, I think we can glean from looking at the bill, are things like paid family leave and expansions to unemployment benefits and expansions to Medicaid that Democrats have been trying to get through in other places and for other reasons. You know, it's not like this is a surprise. I mean, how many times have we been in a situation

where, you know, we're hearing these kind of different messages of where negotiations are at. The fact that Mnuchin is speaking, you know, we do know that Mnuchin is having conversations with Capitol Hill and that they are talking about these issues, including a payroll tax and some type of funding to help small businesses. But as Kelsey is saying, you know, the Democrats are not, you know, not necessarily buying into some of these proposals, particularly the question of a payroll tax, which would be extremely expensive. And it's unclear how that would be paid. And it's not just about, well, basically all of it. They're worried about the paid sick leave portion, the family leave portion, the unemployment benefits portion, and the Medicaid portion. On the paid family leave side, the thing that they're most worried about is that this is coming out of what is called the mandatory spending side. So it's not the kind of thing where they can make changes to it every year.

It's set to go for one year from the date of enactment, and it would apply to a pretty wide range of people. And, you know, Republicans are calling this a new entitlement. And that is a dirty word in a lot of parts, because it essentially means a new benefit that the government has to find money to pay for. You know, there is a difference between the US and some of the European countries that are dealing with this in that a lot of those countries already have these programs in place, paid family leave and paid sick leave. And the U.S. has had a different system, a different structure where employers are sort of decide on their own whether to provide those sorts of benefits. Yeah. And, you know, the paid sick leave portion is really interesting because it would require

companies with 50 or more employees to pay their workers when they're sick. And so there's this is what Republicans are calling a major burden on employers. Now, is this temporary or is this permanent? Well, the sick leave one is really interesting because it is written as it would apply to public health emergencies. So the time frame on that is related to the emergency. Kelsey, I am wondering if the White House ends up making a deal with Nancy Pelosi and House Democrats, do Republicans fall in line? Does it pass the Senate? I mean, that is a really good question. Because in the past, yes, it has meant that not every

Republican gets in line. But we don't really know in this situation. We haven't seen something on this scale of addressing a public crisis like this since the financial crisis. So we're talking about very different dynamics than we're used to seeing. This isn't a budget negotiation. We will see another example of how much power the president has over his own party. We should say that all of these are proposals that are still being talked about. So we're talking about a bill that is in the works. What they end up voting on later tonight may look quite different than this. Yeah, I mean, this is one of those things that those of us who cover Congress know really well, but it may not be widely known.

Things can change very quickly with these sorts of giant bills, these bills that, you know, I'm thinking back to 2008 and the financial crisis and how very quickly things came together, looked like they were falling apart. The next day it was back up and passed and signed. Like this stuff can move and can move fast. Right. And I'm told by both sides that there is a strong desire to make sure that there is something passed, some sort of relief gets out to people as quickly as possible. So there is a strong incentive for them to actually get something done. Well, if that bill changes, if they end up voting on it tonight, we will tell you all about it tomorrow in our regular weekly roundup.

Until then, head to npr.org slash politics newsletter to sign up for a roundup of our best online analysis. I'm Tamara Keith. I cover the White House. I'm Franco Ordonez. I also cover the White House. And I'm Kelsey Snell. I cover Congress. And thank you for listening to the NPR Politics Podcast.