# McConnell gives rosy fiscal stimulus talks update, says ‘significant headway’ made

Speaking on the Senate floor as it began its session Friday, McConnell said “significant headway” had been made in negotiations and the talks remained “productive.”

“In fact, I’m even more optimistic now than I was last night that a bipartisan, bicameral framework for a major rescue package is very close at hand,” McConnell said.

The current bill providing funding the government expires at midnight and a government shutdown would occur if funding is not extended. While it is unclear how much a shutdown would be felt over a weekend, neither party would like to see that happen during the coronavirus pandemic.

Leaders want to marry an all-but-finalized bill that would provide funding for government operations for the rest of the fiscal year, through Sept. 30, 2021, with an emerging economic aid bill to combat the economic harm done by the coronavirus pandemic.

The combined bill, about $1.4 trillion in appropriations and an expected $900 billion in stimulus monies, would be a massive one at least several hundred pages long, which may provoke cries from lawmakers who will want time to look over the final product.

Alternatively, a stopgap spending bill could be moved across the floors of both chambers of Congress late Friday to keep the government open and give lawmakers another few days to work out a deal, but that would require no senator object to taking up the stopgap bill, an uncertain prospect.

While McConnell sounded an upbeat tone, questions about the fate of the Fed lending programs in a stimulus deal remained. Sen. Pat Toomey, a Republican from Pennsylvania, has pushed to include language restricting them and to prohibit similar programs ahead.

Toomey wants to make sure that the Fed can’t restart lending programs to make loans to small businesses and backstop the municipal and corporate bond markets without getting the green light from Congress.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin decided to let those programs close at the end of the year. In a controversial move, Mnuchin earlier said he was going to make sure the hundreds of millions of dollars would not be left where the Biden team could quickly access the funding and allow the Fed to restart the programs.

While some, including the Congressional Research Service, have questioned the legality of Mnuchin’s move, Toomey’s language would back’s Mnuchin’s view.

On Thursday, Toomey said the issue was “extremely critical.”

“We’ll establish in statute that no more loans can be made from these programs, which was exactly what is in the statute now. It was always intended to be a temporary facility to get us through a momentary crisis,” he told reporters.

Still, the outlines of other issues appeared close to being finalized. The stimulus is expected to include $600 direct payments to households, an extension of pandemic-related jobless benefits, and a revival of a federal add-on payment at $300 a week, plus a revival of the Paycheck Protection Program.

One House Democratic aide said a deal was close. “There will be some false alarms over the course of today, but it’ll get there,” the aide said,

Adding to the pressure is fatigue from lawmakers who want to leave Washington for the year-end holidays. Sen. Jim Inhofe, an Oklahoma Republican, warned his colleagues he was not going to miss being with his wife on their wedding anniversary Saturday.

“I’d say to the Senate leadership, you better get this last vote done by tonight or you’ll have to do it without me,” he said.