Pelosi on stimulus: ‘We all want an agreement’
As House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s Tuesday deadline swiftly approaches, investors and politicians alike are growing nervous that a stimulus deal is reached prior to the November election. Yahoo Finance’s Jessica Smith The Final Round panel breaks down the details.
Video Transcript
SEANA SMITH: But first, we gotta get to the latest on the stimulus talks. That has been the huge driver in the market lately. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sounding optimistic earlier today about a potential deal. Jess Smith is standing by in DC with a look at this for us.
And Jess, Pelosi and Secretary Steven Mnuchin were scheduled to speak at 3:00 PM Eastern time today. I haven't seen any headlines cross pertaining to their phone call. But what do we know at this point, just in terms of, I guess, do we have any more clarity on where these talks stand?
JESSICA SMITH: Well, as you mentioned, Pelosi did sound somewhat optimistic in that interview she did with Bloomberg earlier today. She said that that deadline she talked about over the weekend, she kind of downplayed it. She wasn't saying that it was a hard deadline, had to have the deal done today.
She was saying that if they have a bill written by the end of the week, then it still might be possible to get something done before the election. She explained what she tried to convey with that deadline in that interview with Bloomberg. Let's watch.
NANCY PELOSI: Let me just say what the Tuesday, the 48 hours was designed to do. For us to exchange all the unresolved issues, what is your best language, what is our best language, and let's see where we are. Now let's weigh the equities. We all want to get an agreement because people need it. And it's urgent. And our economy needs it. And so that's what-- hopefully by the end of the day today, we'll know where we all are.
JESSICA SMITH: Pelosi did say in that interview that the administration has come a long way on testing. But there were still some issues that needed to be worked out. She highlighted state and local aid and liability protections, two issues that they have been struggling to find common ground on throughout the past three months. She planned in her conversation with Mnuchin to present their counterproposal to what Mnuchin had offered on that front.
Meanwhile, the Senate is set to vote on a standalone bill for the Paycheck Protection Program, and then a skinny relief bill tomorrow. Neither of those are expected to advance.
And there's a new report out from the Washington Post this afternoon that says Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told Senate Republicans in a closed door lunch today that he's warned the White House not make a big stimulus deal before the election.
He says, according to this Washington Post article, that Pelosi is negotiating in bad faith. And she didn't actually want the deal. So that probably does not lend to any confidence there to the idea that even if Mnuchin and Pelosi get a deal, that the Senate will actually take it up and pass it.
SEANA SMITH: Hey, Jess, I think there's a lot of confusion at this point just in terms of the timeline and when exactly a deal will need to be done by. Is it still that 48 hours? Because it seems like from what you were just saying, that a deadline has, of course, been pushed out, and we're actually talking about the end of this week.
JESSICA SMITH: Right, she says that there needs to be a bill that's actually written by the end of the week in order for this to make it through the Senate, get signed into law, get all of this relief to the American people by early November. She'd like to have that done, written by the end of the week. So today, they're hoping to kind of see where they stand on each side, present their counterproposals again, and see where they are.
