Tag: COVID-19 economic relief

Congress set to blow past shutdown deadline amid coronavirus talks

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Congress is barreling toward a rare weekend session as lawmakers race to wrap up a sweeping agreement to fund the government and provide badly needed coronavirus relief. 

Leadership is homing in on a deal that would attach roughly $900 billion in coronavirus relief to a $1.4 trillion bill to fund the government until Oct. 1, 2021, in what is the last major piece of legislation Congress needs to pass before it wraps up its work for the year. 

But lawmakers appear poised to drive over Friday night’s funding cliff, when the government will shut down at least temporarily without new legislation. Even if talks wrap by Friday night it’s expected to take days for Congress to pass it.  Continue reading.

Governor and Lawmakers continue to work on COVID Relief Package

Governor Tim Walz and lawmakers continue negotiations on a relief package for bars and restaurants that remain closed due to the governor’s COVID emergency order.   Walz said Friday he thinks they’re getting close to a deal:

“Us starting out and saying, this is where we think we should go and these are the principles. Then there’s of course the House Democratic version, the House Republican version, the Senate Republican version, the Senate Democratic version.   And now we’re at the point right now where those kind of four corners are working out.”

If Walz and lawmakers are able to agree on a relief package, it doesn’t look like the legislature would pass it until mid-December, when legislators are back in Saint Paul anyway to vote on the governor’s emergency powers. View the post here.