Pressure for quick action on next relief bill strains GOP unity – By Alexander Bolton (The Hill) / April 12 2020
The pressure on Congress to act swiftly on another round of coronavirus relief is creating tension among Republicans.
While some GOP lawmakers are seeking to hold back, at least for now, on charging forward with another massive economic package, others like Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) are calling for a rapid infusion of federal aid costing trillions of dollars.
At the state level, Republican Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland, the chairman of the National Governors Association, is spearheading a push for an additional $500 billion to states.
But other GOP voices, such as Sen. John Kennedy (La.), want to speed up the timeline for reopening the U.S. economy instead of having U.S. taxpayers supplant the role of private employers.
The backdrop to the debate is a federal spending splurge that threatens to push the federal deficit to $3.6 trillion by the end of the fiscal year in September.
The Trump administration and Senate Republicans agree that Congress needs to approve at least another $250 billion for the broadly popular Paycheck Protection Program, a small-business lending program that will forgive loans to employers who keep workers on payroll. The initiative was allotted $349 billion late last month.
But what the next steps should be is a contentious subject.
Continue to article: https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/492312-pressure-for-quick-action-on-next-relief-bill-strains-gop-unity
