Ahead of coronavirus stimulus vote, House lawmakers concerned Rep. Massie may trigger delay

Furious lawmakers voiced serious concerns on Capitol Hill late Thursday that a Republican House member could “go rogue” and possibly scuttle a vote on the $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus package, and potentially endanger other House members in the process, Fox News has learned.
Fox News is told there is deep worry on both sides of the aisle that Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., could try to sidetrack House plans to quickly approve the coronavirus bill via a “voice vote” -- a verbal exercise in which those in favor shout yea, and those opposed holler nay. The loudest side would prevail.
“It’s the Thomas Massie show,” said one senior Republican source who asked to not be identified.
“He is going to do it,” a senior Republican leadership source told Fox News, explaining that leadership had tried every type of arm twisting -- and it's not working. The source said he was actively calling members and telling them to get on planes in the morning to come back to Washington, so that a quorum of 216 members could be established if Massie or another member were to demand one.
The source explained that Massie got a very forceful call from a close confidant and member of the House Freedom Caucus urging him to allow the voice vote, but Massie won’t budge. “We have been riding [House Speaker Nancy] Pelosi for stalling things, and now this,” the source lamented.
Asked whether the House leadership was concerned about others besides Massie, another source replied, “There are others who are egging him on.”
“He had better not do that!” screamed one livid senior House Democratic aide into the phone when asked about such a scenario and Massie. “He’s going to make everyone in the building get [coronavirus].”
A senior administration source declined to comment to Fox News when asked if the Trump administration made efforts to curb any potential parliamentary mischief by Massie.
“A lot of members are pi--ed off,” one source said. “If we don’t have a quorum on tomorrow, we’ll definitely have one by Saturday.”
The 880-page coronavirus stimulus package would amount to the largest economic relief bill in the history of the U.S. for individuals, large corporations, and small businesses -- and its unanimous passage in the Senate came despite grave concerns on both sides about whether it involved too much spending, or not enough.
Massie did not respond to multiple requests for comment from Fox News late Thursday. It was unclear exactly why he may want to delay the bill, which some lawmakers have said contains too much wasteful spending -- including $25 million for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.

Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., seen here in 2015, did not immediately comment. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call, File)

Amid the confusion, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., distributed a floor schedule late Thursday saying the House will convene at 9 a.m. ET Friday, and there will be two hours of debate. "Members are advised that it is possible this measure will not pass by voice vote," the schedule reads.
"Members are encouraged to follow the guidance of their local and state health officials, however if they are able and willing to be in Washington D.C. by 10:00 a.m. tomorrow, Members are encouraged to do so with caution," Hoyer's schedule continues.
“You might have one grandstander,” President Trump warned at a coronavirus press conference earlier in the day. “It will pass. It will just take a little longer."
Also in the evening Thursday, Fox News spoke to a Republican member who was returning to Washington due to the potential Massie situation. The member expressed shock that there could be delays given that the Senate passed the stimulus bill by a 96-0 unanimous vote.
“I’m coming to D.C. to ensure the bill passes,” the GOP member told Fox News. “It’s frustrating having to be prepared for this scenario. ... I really wish members would put people first and just get this done. Heck, if 100 percent of senators can agree, it’s pretty clear this is going to pass. Only thing a member would be doing is holding it up at great risk to the American people. It’s very troublesome a member of Congress would engage in such a tactic.”
Top Democrats and Republicans have indicated they’d prefer a voice vote because it would not require as many members to return to the Capitol, and would speed a vote along.
However, after the voice vote, any member simply may call for “a recorded vote.” That automatically would trigger the roll call.
That’s where House members insert cards into electronic voting machines and vote either yes, no or present. The House then documents and records the ballot of each member.

"A lot of members are pi--ed off."
— Congressional source, concerning the possibility of a delayed vote

In the event a roll-call vote were to be needed because Massie demands one, leadership could push to delay the vote until Saturday to give members time to travel back to D.C., according to the two congressional sources.
The plan for a roll-call vote is to divide the members into 16 groups of 30 members apiece to file into the chamber “to minimize the risks posed by placing too many individuals in one location,” according to an internal security memo obtained by Fox News.
A "State of the Union"-style extreme posture will be in effect on Capitol Hill on Friday, according to the memo, sent by Capitol Attending Physician Dr. Brian Monahan and House Sergeant-at-Arms Paul Irving to all House members ahead of Friday's coronavirus vote.
“A recorded vote could take five or six hours,” even once all necessary members are back in Washington, one House aide complained. That’s because the House would stretch out the vote, according to the memo, having only members enter the chamber to vote in small clusters to contain the coronavirus risk.
Most votes in the House have taken about 20 or so minutes. Votes are sometimes reduced to five or even two minutes if everyone is in the chamber. (The longest vote in House history came on Nov. 23, 2003, and ran 2 hours and 55 minutes. It started at 3 a.m. ET and ended just before 6 a.m. ET on a measure to expand Medicare.)
There could be a deeper problem than the logistics of taking a roll call vote, however. Article I, Section 5 of the Constitution notes that the House and Senate need “a Majority of each shall constitue a Quorum to do Business.”
Massie or any other member could make a point of order -- in which a member asserts that the House or Senate is not operating properly under its own rules -- that the House doesn’t have a quroum. Therefore, the House can't vote if it lacks a quorum. With 430 members, 216 constitutes a quorum.
House Rule XX dictates parameters for establishing quorums in the House of Representatives. Rule XX, Clause 5 (c)(1) deals with the House reducing the number required for a quorum “due to catastrophic circumstances.” But, that rule would eventually trigger the House declaring a number of seats vacant over a period of days, and therefore isn't an option.
In short, the House may have the votes by just a simple majority to pass the coronavirus bill. But if someone makes a point of order about the House lacking a quorum, then leaders will likely have to rustle up 216 members – be that Friday, over the weekend or next week – before the House could vote on the coronavirus bill.
On a conference call with Democrats today, Pelosi, D-Calif., told members the House will vote Friday “if there’s a quorum tomorrow.”
Separately, the security memo also indicated that limited personnel with no extra aides will be permitted at the Capitol. Only one or two persons will be allowed in the elevators at a time, and most will be encouraged to use the stairs, according to the memo.
"Access will be strictly limited to members of Congress, congressional staff who have an office located inside the Capitol and staff who have designated floor access. If a staff person does not have a Capitol office -- even if accompanied by a member -- they will not be permitted inside the Capitol," the memo stated. "Credentialed press will be permitted, as will official business visitors to the House wing."
The document called for members to remain in their offices until voting. The officials are discouraging those “who are ill with respiratory symptoms or fever” from attending.
Officials also are expected to eliminate two of the six lecterns in the House chamber from which members may speak. The officials are asking members to keep away from each other inside the House chamber, and to clean the lectern themselves after they speak.
On a GOP call Thursday afternoon, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., informed Republicans that a GOP member was threatening to request a recorded vote, according to one Republican on the call. The member wasn’t identified.
Democrats are united in favor of a voice vote on the legislation Friday and there was no talk on a caucus call Thursday afternoon that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., or any other Democrat would try to gum up the process and force a recorded vote, according to a source familiar with the call.
Behind the scenes, Capitol attending physicians, as well as party leaders in the House, have been working to discourage members from coming back to Washington to vote on the package, Fox News has learned.
The not-so-subtle messaging, intended to avoid the unnecessary spread of the contagion, came as the House closed the gym normally available to members.
“That’s to make it as uncomfortable as possible on them,” one source who asked not to be identified told Fox News. “Some of these members practically live out of the gym.”
“Having all of these guys on planes, flying in and then going back spells trouble,” another senior source said.
Fox News is told both sides have been trying to get a head count of how many members may actually show up. One source ventured a guess that it could range from “70 to 150.”
Fox News' Leland Vittert contributed to this report.

Democratic March 2020 Cartoons

US deaths top 1,000 as $2.2 trillion in virus aid approved

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. deaths from the coronavirus pandemic topped 1,000 in another grim milestone for a global outbreak that is taking lives and wreaking havoc on economies and the established routines of ordinary life.

In a recognition of the scale of the threat, the U.S. Senate late Wednesday passed an unparalleled $2.2 trillion economic rescue package steering aid to businesses, workers and health care systems.

The unanimous vote came despite misgivings on both sides about whether it goes too far or not far enough and capped days of difficult negotiations as Washington confronted a national challenge unlike it has ever faced. The 880-page measure is the largest economic relief bill in U.S. history.

ADVERTISEMENT

Worldwide, the death toll climbed past 21,000, according to a running count kept by Johns Hopkins University, and the U.S. had 1,050 deaths and nearly 70,000 infections.

Spain’s death toll has risen past 3,400, eclipsing that of China, where the virus was first detected in December, and is now second only to that of Italy, which has 7,500. Lidia Perera, a nurse at Madrid’s 1,000-bed Hospital de la Paz, said more workers were desperately needed. “We are collapsing,” Perera said.

The Spanish parliament voted to allow the government to extend strict stay-at-home rules and business closings until April 11.

Such measures are becoming increasingly common in the U.S., where New York is the epicenter of the domestic outbreak, accounting for more than 30,000 cases and close to 300 deaths, most of them in New York City.

Public health officials in the city hunted down beds and medical equipment and called for more doctors and nurses for fear the number of sick patients will overwhelm hospitals as has happened in Italy and Spain.

A makeshift morgue was set up outside Bellevue Hospital, and the city’s police, their ranks dwindling as more fall ill, were told to patrol nearly empty streets to enforce social distancing.

In Washington, President Donald Trump has called for Americans to dedicate themselves to social distancing for 15 days, including staying home from work and closing bars and restaurants to help try to stall the spread of the disease.

Yet, he has also grumbled that “our country wasn’t built to be shut down” and vowed not to allow “the cure be worse than the problem” — apparently concerned that the outbreak’s devastating effects on financial markets and employment will harm his chances for reelection later this year.

ADVERTISEMENT

“The LameStream Media is the dominant force in trying to get me to keep our Country closed as long as possible in the hope that it will be detrimental to my election success,” Trump tweeted Wednesday.

Democrats say that Trump was prioritizing the economy over the health and safety of Americans.

“I’d like to say, let’s get back to work next Friday,” said Joe Biden, the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination. ”That’d be wonderful. But it can’t be arbitrary.”

Biden said the congressional aid package addressing the outbreak “goes a long way,” but that “meticulous oversight” is required.

“We’re going to need to make sure the money gets out quickly into peoples’ pockets and to keep a close watch on how corporations are using the taxpayers funds that they receive, to make sure it goes to help workers, not rich CEOs or shareholders,” the former vice president said.

Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro has also called to reopen schools and businesses, contending a clampdown ordered by many governors will deeply wound the economy and spark social unrest. He called for only high-risk people to quarantine and for governors to lift their stricter measures.

The country’s governors resisted, saying his instructions run counter to health experts’ recommendations and endanger Latin America’s largest population. The rebellion even included traditional allies of Brazil’s far-right president.

Meanwhile, the governor of a state in central Mexico said the poor are “immune” to the coronavirus, even as the federal government suspended all non-essential government activities.

Puebla Gov. Miguel Barbosa’s comment was apparently partly a response to statistics showing that the wealthy, who travel much more, have made up a significant percentage of Mexicans infected to date, including some prominent businessmen. The country has seen six deaths so far.

“The majority are wealthy people. If you are rich, you are at risk. If you are poor, no,” Barbosa said. “We poor people, we are immune.”

Barbosa also appeared to be playing on an old stereotype held by some Mexicans that poor sanitation standards may have strengthened their immune systems by exposing them to bacteria or other bugs.

In other developments:

— Thailand’s capital, Bangkok, saw a drastic reduction in crowds and traffic on the first day of a national state of emergency declared to cope with the virus. The elevated Skytrain mass transit system was largely empty during the normal rush hour and a main bus station was quiet after the departure over the past week of many workers whose homes are in rural provinces.

Outside the usually throbbing city, checkpoints were set up to find travelers with symptoms of the disease. The state of emergency allows the government to implement curfews, censor the media, disperse gatherings and deploy the military for enforcement.

— Leaders of four Japaneses prefectures whose residents commute to work and school in Tokyo asked people to avoid non-essential visits to the capital. The calls come a day after Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike asked city residents to work from home if possible and avoid going out on the weekend. She said Tokyo is on the verge of a possible explosive increase in infections.

— Pakistani officials said a representative of an Islamic organization spread coronavirus on the outskirts of capital by visiting mosques and going house to house with other clerics. Several clerics and residents are among the 25 people who tested positive in Islamabad. Pakistan’s total of nearly 1,100 cases prompted efforts to persuade the country’s more than 200 million people to stay home.

— Pakistan’s giant neighbor, India, began enforcing the world’s largest coronavirus lockdown, a gargantuan task of trying to keep 1.3 billion people indoors. Official assurances that essentials wouldn’t run out clashed with people’s fears that the disease toll could soon worsen, gutting food and other critical supplies.

— Beginning Friday, South Korea will enforce 14-day quarantines on its nationals and foreigners with long-term stay visas arriving from the United States. It already applies to arrivals from Europe. South Koreans can be sued and foreigners expelled for failing to heed the order.

— China’s National Health Commission says its 67 new COVID-19 cases were all in recent arrivals from abroad. Once again, there were no new cases reported in Wuhan, the original epicenter of the illness and which remains under some restrictions until April 8. The government is trying to restart the world’s second-largest economy as its cases subside. Of the more than 81,000 people infected, more than 74,000 have been released from treatment, while just under 4,000 remain in care.

— British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said more than 400,000 people responded within a day to the government’s call for volunteers to help the country’s most vulnerable people.

— The Pentagon halted for 60 days the movement of U.S. troops and Defense Department civilians overseas, a measure expected to affect about 90,000 troops scheduled to deploy or return from abroad.

For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia and death.

___

Long reported from Washington. Associated Press journalists around the world contributed to this report.

When bad news is personal: Journalists, politicians fighting the virus

For millions around the globe waking up Wednesday, the big news was that Prince Charles has the coronavirus.
His symptoms are said to be mild, and the prince is believed to have gotten the virus from his high number of public engagements, during which he would try to stop himself and remember not to shake hands.
But for me, the news is that an old colleague, David Von Drehle, has mild to moderate symptoms, battling “waves of fever, I was drifting half in and half out of sleep. I was wearing a down jacket with the hood cinched around my head. I was buried under the covers, teeth chattering.” He’s “thankful” that it’s not worse.
And that another old colleague, Anne Kornblut, is fighting the disease, “telling my kids to back away from me, while informing them that this scary thing upending the entire planet is now inside our house. Inside their mom. My daughter cried and asked if I will get better. I couldn’t hug her.”
It’s not that these people are more deserving of sympathy because they’re journalists. Doctors, nurses, hospital staffers, police officers, even retail clerks are the ones on the front lines, their stories mostly untold. Journalists have a platform, of course, but they and their families are coping just like everyone else. The thing about this virus is that it doesn’t care if you are a working stiff, a prince, or a movie star.
The difference for me is that I know some of these people, and that wipes away the abstractions. It’s how so many of us felt when Tom Hanks and his wife got the virus in Australia (though I’ve only met the actor once, for a brief interview). When Andrew Cuomo tells the administration that he needs 26,000 more ventilators or that many people will die, it’s hard to wrap your head around such a figure. When people at your own news organization get the virus --as have six Fox News staffers in New York, now under self-quarantine --it hits home.
Von Drehle, with whom I shared a small New York office many years ago and later sat nearby in a Washington newsroom, now lives in Kansas City.
“I did not travel during the outbreak,” the former Washington Post editor and Time reporter says in his Post column. “I don’t mix in large groups. (On second thought, there was a college basketball game.) I earn my living by solitary work from my own home, and I adopted every recommended hygiene and distancing technique weeks before the president took the pandemic seriously. Bottom line: I don’t know where I picked it up. It’s everywhere.”
Dave says he hears people on TV all day talking about testing, but there was no testing in his area. A kind ER doctor listened to his lungs in a hospital parking lot, said he probably has the virus and told him to come back if he got worse.
“It’s going to be a race now to see whether I can finish this column before I pass out,” Von Drehle writes.
Kornblut, a longtime Washington Post reporter and editor, is now a Facebook executive living in California. After a trip to New York, she says on her page, “I had to get in bed and go to sleep. It hit me like a truck.”
Her son wrote up the development for their home newspaper: “Anne Kornblut has the coronavirus but do not worry it is not the bad kind. Please note that you should not be within ten feet of Anne.”
Kornblut says the health department “called to inform me to stay away from everyone, including my children. So who should take care of them if my husband tests positive, too? ‘We haven’t had that scenario yet,’ the public health nurse said.”
Her husband has since tested positive for the virus.
I was even harder hit by news yesterday that Alan Finder, a retired New York Times editor and reporter and onetime City Hall bureau chief, has died from the virus.
He was extremely gracious to me when I was a rookie reporter decades ago at New Jersey’s Bergen Record. Smart, savvy and a terrific writer, he was always generous and someone I looked up to.
Times reporter Kevin Sack tweeted that Finder was “a terrific reporter, a calming presence and, as anyone who knew him will attest, one of the menschiest guys around. RIP.”
I also know people in the world of politics who have been affected. Amy Klobuchar revealed that her husband, John Bessler, has the virus, and was hospitalized in Virginia after registering “very low oxygen levels.” The senator and former presidential candidate told MSNBC that “you can't go and visit your loved one. I would love to be at my husband's side right now.”
I’ve interviewed another former presidential candidate, Rand Paul, numerous times. He has come under sharp criticism from some fellow lawmakers because he continued to work for six days, including a visit to the Senate gym, after being tested for the virus, though he self-quarantined as soon as he got a positive result.
In a column for USA Today, Paul said he sought a test, even though that was not recommended by health officials, because he’d been traveling extensively and had part of his lung removed seven months ago:
“For those who want to criticize me for lack of quarantine, realize that if the rules on testing had been followed to a T, I would never have been tested and would still be walking around the halls of the Capitol.”
There are, as I mentioned, so many individual stories among the 60,000 confirmed virus cases in America. The Washington Post, to its credit, spotlighted some of them:
The Rev. Jadon Hartsuff, an Episcopal priest in D.C., who first felt drained after a Sunday service.
Mike Saag, an infectious disease doctor in Alabama, who developed a cough and was bone-tired.
Ritchie Torres, a New York City councilman from the Bronx, whose ordeal began with a general sickly feeling. “It is psychologically unsettling to know I am carrying a virus that could harm my loved ones,” he says.
Indeed, this entire crisis has been psychologically unsettling. It’s that way for journalists looking at the struggles of other journalists, health workers looking at the struggles of other health workers, or all of us, as Americans, looking at the suffering in our country. Even if those bearing the brunt aren’t royalty.

FISA court delays deadline for DOJ's proposed reforms amid coronavirus

The U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on Wednesday granted the Justice Department a one-week extension to give details about court-ordered reforms to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) amid the coronavirus outbreak.
“The government, through counsel, orally requested a one-week extension of the time to provide such information, in view of modified staffing and telework practices occasioned by the COVID-19 outbreak,” Judge James Boasberg, chief judge of the FISA court, wrote, The Washington Examiner reported. “Accordingly, the government’s time to provide such information is hereby extended.”
FISA court blocks FBI agents linked to Carter Page probe from seeking wiretaps, other surveillance
Late last year, the inspector general found at least 17 "significant inaccuracies and omissions" in the application to get a warrant to monitor former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.
Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s nearly 500-page report was also sharply critical at times of the FBI’s handling of the case, including failing to share information.
Earlier this month, Boasberg also largely approved revisions that the FBI said it would make to its process for seeking wiretaps – in reaction to Horowitz's report.
Among the problems, Boasberg noted, were that the FBI had "omitted or mischaracterized" various "information bearing on [former British spy Christopher] Steele's personal credibility and professional judgment."
Boasberg told the Justice Department to provide details about proposed FISA reforms in March and asked for a report on “improving DOJ proactiveness in ensuring the completeness of FISA applications,” according to the Examiner.
The deadline was pushed from March 27 to April 3, the Examiner reported.
Fox News' Dom Calicchio, Ronn Blitzer and Brooke Singman contributed to this report.

Senate OKs $2T coronavirus stimulus package in unanimous vote; House sets Friday vote

By a vote of 96-0, the Senate passed a massive $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus compromise package just before midnight Wednesday, ending days of deadlock and sending the bill to the House of Representatives -- which House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said will soon take up the historic measure to bring relief to individuals, small businesses, and larger corporations "with strong bipartisan support."
The 880-page legislation is the largest economic relief bill in U.S. history. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., appeared somber and exhausted as he announced the vote. He released senators from Washington until April 20, though he promised to recall them if needed.
"96-0 in the United States Senate," President Trump wrote on Twitter. "Congratulations AMERICA!"
The unanimous vote came despite misgivings on both sides about whether it goes too far or not far enough. The vote capped days of difficult negotiations as Washington confronted a national challenge unlike any it has ever faced. Unemployment numbers were set to be revealed Thursday morning, and experts warned they could reach alarming new highs.
The package would provide one-time direct payments to Americans of $1,200 per adult making up to $75,000 a year, and $2,400 to married couples making up to $150,000, with $500 payments per child. After a $75,000 threshold for individuals, the benefit would be reduced by $5 for each $100 the taxpayer makes. A similar $150,000 threshold applies to couples, and a $112,500 threshold for heads of households.
READ THE FINAL BILL; READ A SUMMARY OF THE BILL ; READ THE SASSE AMENDMENT
The legislation passed by the Senate will use 2019 tax returns, if available, or 2018 tax returns to assess income for determining how much direct financial aid individuals receive. Those who did not file tax returns can use a Form SSA-1099, Social Security Benefit Statement or Form RRB-1099, a Social Security Equivalent Benefit Statement, per Page 149 of the bill.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky. gives a thumbs up as he leaves the Senate chamber on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, March 25, 2020, where a deal has been reached on a coronavirus bill. The 2 trillion dollar stimulus bill is expected to be voted on in the Senate Wednesday. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Further, the bill allocates $250 billion to extend unemployment insurance to more workers, and lengthen the duration to 39 weeks, up from the normal 26 weeks. $600 extra a week would be provided for four months. (Just before voting on the final package began late Wednesday, the Senate was debating an amendment from Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., to bar people from getting more from new unemployment benefits than they would have received on the job; the amendment needed 60 votes and failed 48-48.)
The final package would additionally provide $349 billion in loans to small businesses -- and money spent on rent, payroll and utilities becomes grants that don't need to be paid back. Many hotels would qualify as small businesses under the plan.
Passenger airlines would receive $25 billion for workers' "salaries and benefits," plus up to $25 billion more in loan guarantees and loans. Contract workers would also receive $3 billion in assistance. Airlines would have to agree not to furlough workers until at least the end of September in return.
WHO QUALIFIES FOR A CHECK?
About $17 billion will go to other distressed companies like Boeing, which is seen as essential to national security. And, approximately $200 billion would be provided in tax assistance to small businesses, including through payroll tax deferrals.
At the same time, the bill omits many -- though not all -- items from Pelosi's version of the legislation that Republicans had called wasteful or irrelevant, including climate-change-related emissions restrictions for airlines and various diversity-related provisions.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif. speaks outside her office on Capitol Hill, Monday, March 23, 2020. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, Pool)

Gone from the stimulus bill are mentions of mandatory early voting, ballot harvesting, requirements that federal agencies review their usage of "minority banks," and attempts to curb airlines' carbon emissions -- a Pelosi demand that even Saikat Chakrabarti, the former chief of staff to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and an author of the Green New Deal, called "ridiculous."
"What's not in the Senate's bipartisan coronavirus bill: Pelosi's outrageous wish list," wrote GOP national spokesperson Elizabeth Harrington. "0 mentions of 'diversity.' 0 mentions of 'emissions.' 0 mentions of 'early voting.' 0 mentions of 'climate change.' Good!"
But, the package still contained some wins for Pelosi. Page 524 of the bill text indicates that many businesses that take a government loan would be obligated to remain neutral in any "union organizing effort" during the loan -- a major giveaway to unions. Affected businesses would have between 500 and 10,000 employees.
And, Page 781 of the bill provides $25 million to the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives to cover "salary and expenses."
Also in the final bill text, $25 million would still be allocated for the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Trump, speaking at the White House coronavirus briefing earlier Wednesday, said that he understood the provision was necessary because Democrats demanded some concessions in order to get the stimulus bill passed, even though it galled some conservatives.
Pelosi was the first to demand the Kennedy Center money in her own bill, which Republicans said was full of unseemly payouts for well-connected special interests at a time of national crisis.
The Kennedy Center put out a statement Wednesday evening saying it was "extraordinarily grateful that Congress has recognized our institution's unique status and has included funding in its legislation to ensure that we can reopen our doors and stages as soon as we are able."
"For an opera house, you sure are tone-deaf," responded blogger Jim Treacher, after telling the Kennedy Center where to shove its statement.

John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts shot at dusk across the Potomac in Georgetown

Meanwhile, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said the House would vote on the matter on Friday. Republican leaders said they'd whip votes to support the bill.
"Over the past few days, the Senate has stepped into the breach," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in his own remarks. "We packed weeks or perhaps months of the legislative process into five days. Representatives from both sides of the aisle and both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue have forged a bipartisan agreement in highly partisan times, with very little time to spare."
He added: "It’s been a long, hard road, with a remarkable number of twists and turns, but for the sake of millions of Americans, it will be worth it. It will be worth it to get help to millions of small businesses and save tens of millions of jobs."
However, earlier in the day, a senior GOP source told Fox News contributor and Townhall.com editor Guy Benson that the compromise bill was a face-saving exercise by Schumer, and that he was trying to "take credit" for a GOP bill that he filibustered for "small ball" alterations. Democrats, the source said, couldn't drag the situation out much longer; economic conditions have worsened dramatically, and President Trump's approval rating has risen.
And, a senior Republican aide separately told Fox News: "I half expected that the next thing I read would be the Minority Leader taking credit for inventing fire. The reality is that almost every significant 'win' he's taking credit for, is actually a Senate Republican idea."
Republicans had "never objected" to more hospital funding, or that oversight of the stimulus stabilization fund "be structured almost exactly like TARP oversight," the aide went on. And Republicans were the first to push for three months of unemployment insurance and "did not oppose adding a fourth."
The stimulus movement came as stocks posted their first back-to-back gains in weeks, but much of Wednesday's early rally faded as the hitch developed in the Senate. The market is down nearly 27 percent since setting a record high a month ago.
Amid the debate, presidential hopeful Sen. Bernie Sanders said he might try to torpedo the Senate's stimulus package as Republican senators raised objections about what they called a "massive drafting error" related to unemployment benefits.
“In my view, it would be an outrage to prevent working-class Americans to receive the emergency unemployment assistance included in this legislation," Sanders said in a statement, also posted on social media.
Sanders took to the Senate floor late Wednesday at approximately 9:30 p.m. ET to say he was concerned that the administration would be able to "expend $500 billion in virtually any way they want" under the legislation. In fact, the administration would not have such unilateral control.
"They're very upset that somebody who is making 10, 12 bucks an hour might end up with a paycheck for four months more than they received last week," Sanders went on. "Oh, my god, the universe is collapsing!"
The concern from Sens. Lindsey Graham, Tim Scott, R-S.C., Sasse, and Rick Scott, R-Fla., was that the the bill could pay workers more in unemployment benefits than they'd make in salary, by sticking a $600 per week payment on top of ordinary benefits that are calculated as a percentage of income.
Democrats and economists have countered that the point of the new unemployment benefit is, in fact, to make peoples' salaries whole, and that companies could simply raise wages to compete and attract workers.
"The weird thing about this hypothetical 'generous unemployment pay will discourage people from entering critical industries' is... they could just raise wages?" Alex Godofsky wrote on Twitter. "Amazon has already raised wages. Like, it's okay if wages - and prices - go up for a while. It's fine."
Others have noted that the unemployment benefits boost would expire in the summer. In an article entitled "Republican Senators’ Objection to Expanded Unemployment Benefits Makes Little Sense," Josh Barro began by noting that "these are unemployment benefits, and you generally have to have been laid off to claim them."
"We will continue to have virus-mitigation measures that create mass unemployment for a significant period, and even after those measures can be relaxed through much of the country, it will take some time for employers to re-ingest all the previously laid-off workers," Barro wrote. "In fact, it’s likely that the shutdowns will persist long enough that the enhanced benefits will need to be extended. If we’re in a situation by July where all the shutdowns are over and employers are eagerly hiring and our biggest concern is too many people don’t want to go back to work, I will be overjoyed and very surprised."
Later Wednesday, the Republicans agreed to drop their objections to fast-tracking the stimulus vote, as long as there was first a vote on the Sasse amendment to cap unemployment benefits to 100 percent of salary.
Also in the evening, Pelosi said unanimous consent was a nonstarter in the House, and implied that quick passage in the lower chamber may be unrealistic. Pelosi has called for members to have at least 24 hours to review the bill text once it's available.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, left, accompanied by White House Legislative Affairs Director Eric Ueland and acting White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, speaks with reporters as he walks to the offices of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky. on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, March 24, 2020. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

“That’s not gonna work," she told reporters shortly after 7:30 p.m. ET, referring to unanimous consent. "Republicans have told us that’s not possible from their said. ... What I’d like to see -- because this a $2 trillion bill -- I’d like to see a good debate on the floor."
Meanwhile, the White House projected confidence. Insistently optimistic, President Trump said of the greatest public-health emergency in anyone's lifetime, "I don’t think it's going to end up being such a rough patch" and anticipated the economy soaring “like a rocket ship” when it's over. Yet he implored Congress late in the day to move on critical aid without further delay.
The package is intended as relief for an economy spiraling into recession or worse and a nation facing a grim toll from an infection that's killed nearly 20,000 people worldwide. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, asked how long the aid would keep the economy afloat, said: “We’ve anticipated three months. Hopefully, we won’t need this for three months."
Underscoring the effort's sheer magnitude, the bill finances a response with a price tag that equals half the size of the entire $4 trillion annual federal budget.
Fox News' Chad Pergram and Jason Donner, and Fox Business Network's Hillary Vaughn, as well as The Associated Press, contributed to this report.

Stock Futures Cartoons

Of America and sacrifice: Is the country ready to step up?

WASHINGTON (AP) — For most Americans alive today, the idea of shared national sacrifice is a collective abstraction, a memory handed down from a grandparent or passed on through a book or movie.

Not since World War II, when people carried ration books with stamps that allowed them to purchase meat, sugar, butter, cooking oil and gasoline, when buying cars, firewood and nylon was restricted, when factories converted from making automobiles to making tanks, Jeeps and torpedos, when men were drafted and women volunteered in the war effort, has the entire nation been asked to sacrifice for a greater good.

The civil rights era, Vietnam, the Gulf wars, 9/11 and the financial crisis all involved suffering, even death, but no call for universal sacrifice. President George W. Bush encouraged people to buy things after the terrorist attacks to help the economy — “patriots at the mall,” some called it — before the full war effort was underway. People lost jobs and homes in the financial crisis, but there was no summons for community response.

Now, with the coronavirus, it’s as though a natural disaster has taken place in multiple places at once. Millions will likely lose their jobs. Businesses will shutter. Schools have closed. Thousands will die. Leaders are ordering citizens into isolation to stop the virus’ march.

Suddenly, in the course of a few weeks, John F. Kennedy’s “ask what you can do for your country” injunction has come to life. Will Americans step up?

“This is a new moment,” said Jon Meacham, a historian and author of “The Soul of America.”

“Prolonged sacrifice isn’t something we’ve been asked to do, really, since World War II,” Meacham said. “There was a kind of perpetual vigilance in the Cold War — what President Kennedy called ‘the long twilight struggle’ — but living with the fear of nuclear war is quite abstract compared to living with the fear of a virus and of a possible economic depression.”

The second world war involved a common enemy and common purpose, with clear sides drawn across the globe. While President Donald Trump has at times tried to summon that feeling about attacking the coronavirus, he has abruptly changed course, suggesting Monday that restrictions he has sought on American life may be as short-lived as his slogan about “15 days to slow the spread,” even as others are warning that most of the country is about to be hit by a crush of new cases.

In Congress, some talk of coming together while others excoriate their partisan opposites. On Monday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) laid the early blame for lack of congressional action entirely at the feet of Democrats.

“A request to do anything becomes a point of attack, and we are always 10 steps back from where we should be on big legislative agreements,” said Julian Zelizer, a professor of history at Princeton. “So intense polarization in a moment of crisis — with a president who is not interested in time-tested forms of governance and the job of uniting — make this much more difficult.”

That has not been universal. Gov. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio), moved swiftly to shut down most activity in his state and he implored Ohioans to help.

“We have not faced an enemy like we are facing today in 102 years,” DeWine said recently. “You have to go back to the 1918 influenza epidemic. We are certainly at war. ... In the time of war, we must make sacrifices, and I thank all of our Ohio citizens for what they are doing and what they aren’t doing. You are making a huge difference, and this difference will save lives.”

As a nation, Americans are accustomed to seeing swaths of the country destroyed by hurricanes, floods, wildfires and blizzards. But there is then a season of rebuilding and renewal. The coronavirus, with its rapid spread, is giving Americans a public-health Katrina that knows few borders or boundaries, even though some parts of the country are suffering far more than others.

To date, for many, the sacrifices have been mere inconveniences. No restaurants or movie theaters. Maybe the need to buy exercise equipment because the gym has closed. Or to leave the cardboard box from Amazon outside for 24 hours to make sure the virus doesn’t somehow enter the home.

A week of being told to work from home can resemble a working vacation. A week of not being able to work at all is frustrating but, potentially, eventually reversible.

But when a week bleeds into a month, or longer, how will we react?

“We used to tax in times of crisis. Now we don’t,” Zelizer said. “We asked people to ration in times of crisis. Now we don’t. We asked people to serve in times of crisis. Now we don’t. So this is a sea change. The thing is, Americans might not have a choice.”

For many, the choices are personal and painful. Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) cannot see her parents or her in-laws for the foreseeable future because she may have been exposed to the virus. But she is also seeing the impact of the virus in many other ways that are far more harmful.

“I think we are at the beginning stages of people understanding what the sacrifice is,” Spanberger said. “People with loved ones in nursing homes are told they can’t go visit their loved ones. That brings it home. For people who have kids, trying to explain why they can’t go to school, can’t have playdates, can’t see friends, can’t see family members.

“It is this element of everyone needs to disrupt their lives so that other people won’t die,” she said. “It’s different than eating less meat because of war or working in a factory because a husband is overseas. But you also can’t engage with the community, so it makes it harder. You can’t lean on your social circle, church, or school. All of those things are taken from us trying to keep people safe.”

With people being asked to sacrifice their jobs, their children’s education, their ability to commune with family and friends, Spanberger said, “the depth of empathy that that should be available and the strength of concerns over these decisions needs to be unparalleled and we do not see that, at least not from the administration.”

What the nation’s leaders do or don’t do will shape the course of the pandemic and its lethality. But it will be Americans’ willingness to sacrifice that may well matter more.

“In the end, this presents a great and compelling test of our national sense of ourselves as exceptional, generous and resilient,” Meacham said. “Perhaps we are all of those things. One thing’s for sure: We’re about to find out.”

___

Michael Tackett is deputy Washington bureau chief for The Associated Press. Follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tackettdc