Pelosi has worked hard to soothe discontent within her caucus, fielding complaints from members about changes to pension programs and from members who wanted to provide greater financial security for the 36 million people out of work.
In one particularly tense moment earlier this week, Congressional Progressive Caucus co-Chair Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) confronted Pelosi on a caucuswide call, decrying the fact that her popular proposal to have the federal government cover payrolls for struggling businesses was left out of the final package.
Jayapal and fellow CPC co-Chair Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) even pressed Pelosi to punt the vote until next week to allow more time for negotiations but the California Democrat refused. Progressive leaders also debated a floor strategy that would temporarily block the bill from coming to the floor, but did not ultimately use the tactic.
“We must respond appropriately. This is no time for half-measures or to only help half the country,” Jayapal wrote in a tweet late Thursday. Jayapal said on Friday she planned to oppose the relief package but added she’s „not whipping on the bill.“
„People are disappointed, obviously. When you work hard on something, you want to make sure it’s in there,“ Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), senior member of CPC said, adding that most in the caucus would ultimately support the bill.
But in a sign of Pelosi’s hold over her caucus, most Democrats have relegated their complaints to private calls with colleagues and leadership, declining to criticize the speaker publicly.
House Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal (D-Mass.) said he understood members’ critiques but added the uniqueness of the current situation makes drafting bills even more complicated.
„We’re just up against this pandemic and we’re all doing the social distancing, we’re all doing the zooming. And part of it is the obvious — it’s depersonalization,“ Neal said. „I invited all members to talk to either me or the Ways and Means staff and many of them didn’t take advantage of it. I understand the critique but there’s also a competing reality here and we’re living in it.“
Neal’s staff worked with Jayapal to try to turn her idea into legislative text but say they ran out of time to incorporate it into this bill. Still, Democratic leaders haven’t ruled out adding Jayapal’s proposal to a future coronavirus relief bill.
Republican and Democrats crisscrossed the country by car and mostly empty airplanes to reach the Capitol, where they expect to be voting late into the evening on Friday. For safety reasons, lawmakers voted in groups with time in between to clean the chamber.
Lawmakers are also encouraged to don masks and frequently use hand sanitizer while in the chamber, now normal practices that further underscore how the pandemic has upended every aspect of American life, including its foundational norms.
The House is also expected to easily approve the resolution to allow for proxy voting, which would change the chamber’s rules only for the 116th Congress, which ends in January.
Lawmakers of both parties have worried about returning to Washington, where hundreds of their colleagues and even more staff would be gathered in the petri dish that is the U.S. Capitol complex. The Senate has been working in D.C. for two weeks.
Hoyer — who has led talks with GOP leaders on the remote voting plans — has forcefully argued that the House should be able to vote, debate and hold hearings amid the pandemic.
And he said many Republicans agree with him, even if they can’t say it publicly.
„I just had a couple of people tell me that they’re appreciative of what we’re doing,“ Hoyer said Friday of GOP members. „I’ve not heard any angry response [from Republicans]. …Frankly, cynically thinking, it’s more about not wanting us to meet than it is about what rules we meet under.“
Source: politico.com
See more here: news365.stream
