View this email in your browser

Unsanitized: The COVID-19 Report for Dec. 15, 2020

What's In the Last Chance for COVID Relief

The writing was on the wall for this result in March

 

The gang to end all gangs in Congress releases their COVID relief
package on Monday. (Michael Brochstein/Sipa USA via AP Images)

First Response

We are now four days away from a self-imposed Congressional deadline to
pass an omnibus spending package that will fund the government through
next September, the last train leaving the station for COVID-19 relief
this year. Yesterday the bipartisan "908 Group" or "Gang of
Eight" or "New York Dolls" or whatever nickname they've given
themselves finally released, on December 14, actual text of their
agreement on the relief package. This will get discussed in the media as
a $908 billion package but it's surely not; it's $748 billion in the
part that matters, the part that actually has a chance to pass.

One contentious issue was a corporate liability shield

for negligence in exposing customers or employees to the virus. We
actually have text on that

and it's much worse, retaining the McConnell/Cornyn provisions

that would block lawsuits over a host of employment laws like the
Federal Labor Standards Act, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, Title I
of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the WARN Act, which gives
workers notice before firing. It also would allow the Justice Department
to prosecute lawyers who seek information from employers about COVID
exposure.

**Read all of our Unsanitized reports here**

Click to Support The American Prospect

The thing is, only Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), in the end, agreed to that
language. That's not enough to pass a bill. So they packaged it with
something Democrats had to sacrifice: $160 billion in state and local
fiscal aid, derided as a "blue state bailout" by Mitch McConnell but
actually a desperately important measure to prevent long-lasting
austerity that will subvert efforts at the federal level toward economic
recovery.

Those two pieces are put into a separate bill from everything else. The
state/local aid and liability shield bill is designed not to pass. So as
bad as the liability protection is
,
it's also irrelevant. It won't become law in this Congress.  

Let's then move to the part that does have the potential to pass. I
only say "potential" because there's no final answer on whether
Democrats will accept something without state and local aid, though
they're certainly talking like they will. The fact that there's a
second bill can allow them to say they were for it but merely outvoted.
It seems like Republicans will support the $748 billion package as well,
at least in enough numbers to pass it, but again there's no clarity
here. I should say that splitting the bills apart was McConnell's
idea, so it's likely that he'd bring it to the floor with enough
votes on his side to support it if Democrats agree.

We Depend on Your Donations

The bill includes the $300/week enhancement for all forms of
unemployment benefits for 16 weeks. It extends the two expiring
programs-one for gig workers and freelancers, the other for extended
benefits-also by 16 weeks. No retroactive benefits are granted. The
bill renews the Paycheck Protection Program with $300 billion for small
business, including more money for the Economic Injury Disaster Loan
(EIDL) program and a second draw for those who have already received a
forgivable loan. (This part, incidentally, does allow 501(c)(6)
organizations

to get PPP loans: that includes chambers of commerce, boards of trade
and other "business leagues.")

There's $82 billion for schools; $45 billion for transportation (of
which I believe the majority goes to airlines); $35 billion for health
care providers; $25 billion for rental assistance and an extension of
the eviction moratorium to January 31 (at which point the new president
can extend the current moratorium through executive action); $16 billion
for vaccination costs and testing and tracing (a shockingly low number
);
$13 billion for farmers and fisheries; $13 billion for enhanced
nutrition assistance and food bank funding; $12 billion in low-income
community grants; $10 billion for child care providers; $10 billion for
broadband deployment (a nice long-term investment but puzzling in an
emergency bill); the forgiveness of a $10 billion loan to the U.S.
Postal Service; $5 billion in emergency substance abuse prevention; an
extension of student loan forbearance to April; and the extension of an
obscure CARES Act provision that allows defense contractors, alone among
every profession, to be paid not to work
.

The bill is partially "paid for" with $430 billion from the
Treasury/Federal Reserve "money cannon" and $130 billion left over
from the previous PPP. This means that there's only $188 billion in
"new money," but that's really an accounting gimmick. The old
money wasn't getting used, and the majority of it was earmarked to
corporate bonds. You could stretch and say that some of it could have
gone to state and local governments in Fed loans, but the Fed has the
power to make those loans

under its own authority right now, and should be pressured to do so.

This bill is more than McConnell has previously offered, by my count.
(The HEALS Act, which had nominally more spending
,
included the poison pill liability shield and as such wasn't a serious
effort. It also didn't even have enough support among Republicans for
McConnell to pass it; his eventual "skinny" bill

was $650 billion.) It fills a number of holes with inadequate but still
extant funds. If you want to be mad about it, be mad that we're in the
middle of a historic state and local budget crisis, with more burdens
being placed on these governments

due to vaccination costs-only a portion of which

would be covered by this bill-and the feds still haven't
appropriated one dollar to cover those shortfalls. That will have
long-lasting effects, stunting economic growth in 2021 with local
austerity.

We Can't Do This Without You

Whether Democrats will take what's left depends on developments.
One-time stimulus checks of $1,200-one-quarter of the full 16-week
enhanced unemployment value-are not part of the bill, and Bernie
Sanders among others are pushing for their inclusion
.
If the bipartisan bill cost was an upper bound you could probably back
into $160 billion in checks by substituting them for the state and local
funding. They'd be pretty means-tested at that number, however. And
conservatives might peel away if any additional costs are added, at
which point you're trading checks for something else.

Sanders is calling for a rejection

of the package, saying that going from the $3.4 trillion Heroes Act to
$188 billion in new money is "a collapse" for Democratic
negotiators. Let's remember that the die was cast on this in March.
Republicans got the corporate bailout they wanted and turned away from
any other relief. Democrats were forced to negotiate with themselves
because
they failed to provide relief in the initial package for the duration of
the national emergency, and it predictably ran out. The failure was
present at the outset. The "negotiations" since have been
play-acting. Only the threat of Republicans losing the Senate in Georgia
has made them willing to go even this far.

So Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer blew it, but they blew it a long time
ago, during the original CARES Act that everyone supported, including
Sanders. He can take a little blame for that himself, actually.

Give Now in Our End of Year Fundraising Drive

Days Without a Bailout Oversight Chair

263
.  

Support Independent, Fact-Checked Journalism

Today I Learned

* The Moderna vaccine is going to be approved this week
,
we're on track to have a significant number of vaccinations by spring.
(New York Times)

* What might end up in short supply is dry ice-thanks to concentration
.
(Acute)

* Yes, rich countries are scooping up the vaccines
,
and this will become a humanitarian crisis. (New York Times)

* Amazon under fire from California

in a workplace investigation involving virus exposure. (Reuters)

* Employment is worse than the headline rate
,
probably close to 9.6 percent. (Calculated Risk)

* A White House official spent months in the hospital

from COVID. (Bloomberg)

* Here are the highest death rates

from COVID in the world. The U.S. is actually just on the edge of the
top ten. (Axios)

* We're all sitting at home and buying cheap crap from China
.
(New York Times)

**Click the social links below to share this newsletter**

 

[link removed]

 

[link removed]

 

[link removed]

 

[link removed]

 

[link removed]

 

[link removed]

YOUR TAX DEDUCTIBLE DONATION SUPPORTS INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM

Copyright (C) 2020 The American Prospect. All rights reserved.
_________________

Sent to [email protected]

Unsubscribe:
[link removed]

The American Prospect, Inc., 1225 I Street NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC xxxxxx, United States