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The bipartisan proposal would not only extend those unemployment programs for 16 weeks, but it would revive a lapsed supplemental benefit at about $300 a week — half of the original amount — and extend student loan forbearance and eviction moratoriums.
Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, had previously proposed discarding the liability protections, a top priority of his, and the state and local aid, a suggestion Democrats initially panned. But after the moderates proposed the two bills on Monday at a news conference on Capitol Hill, Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Senate Democrat, and at least one other Democrat signaled a willingness to abandon both issues in the absence of an agreement.
“It’s a really complicated issue, and trying to reach a full resolution by Friday is going to be very difficult,” said Senator Angus King, independent of Maine and one of multiple lawmakers who negotiated over the liability language. “We’re going to keep working on it, but it may be that it has to hold over into January.”
It remained unclear whether the moderates’ bipartisan compromise, first outlined shortly after Thanksgiving, would be part of any final deal. Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California spoke with Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, on Monday evening for roughly 20 minutes and continued to push for the inclusion of funds for state and local governments.
Members of the centrist group — including Senators Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, and Mark Warner, Democrat of Virginia, as well as Representatives Josh Gottheimer, Democrat of New Jersey, and Tom Reed, Republican of New York — have huddled for days to hammer out the details. The bipartisan House coalition that Mr. Gottheimer and Mr. Reed led, known as the Problem Solvers Caucus, is continuing work to merge the two bills into one.
The $748 billion agreement would provide $300 billion for small businesses, restaurants and live-performance venues, as well as $13 billion for emergency food assistance, $82 billion for education, $45 billion for airlines, airports, Amtrak and public transit and $16 billion for testing, tracing and vaccine development and distribution, according to a summary.
Standing at the news conference behind the two stacks of legislation, lawmakers from both parties emphasized that the compromise legislation would not include every priority and that additional legislation could move under the incoming Biden administration.
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