Democrats, Republicans fail to reach deal on COVID-10 relief bill

WASHINGTON, D.C. (NBC) – There was disappointment Friday after another negotiation on Capitol Hill over a new COVID relief bill.

Both Democrat leaders and White House representatives said no progress was made toward new legislation. That means trouble in every corner of America, federal unemployment benefits have now lapsed for a week and areas such as eviction protections, aid for schools, and virus testing programs remain unresolved.

Democrats say they offered to lower their spending if Republicans would increase theirs by about $1 trillion.

Republicans say Democrats refuse to budge from over $900 billion in direct payments to state and local governments.

President Trump may now move forward with executive actions.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said, “It was a disappointing meeting. We reiterated in very strong terms our offer: we come down a trillion from our top offer, which is 3.4 (trillion). They go up a trillion from their top number, which was 1 (trillion). And that way we could begin to meet in the middle. Unfortunately they rejected it. They said they couldn’t go much above their existing one trillion. And that was disappointing.

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said, “The chief and I will recommend to the president, based on our lack of activity today, to move forward with some executive orders. Again we agree with the speaker this is not the first choice but people have run out of the enhanced unemployment so that is something we will recommend an executive order on. On rental foreclosures, we will recommend an executive order on that, and also student loans.”

There are no plans for the two sides to meet again at this point.