WASHINGTON (AP) -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has unveiled a $3 trillion new coronavirus aid package the House is expected to take up Friday for a vote. Pelosi was scheduled to make a statement on the bill later Tuesday.
She has encouraged Congress to "go big" with the next virus aid package to help cash-strapped states.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP's earlier story follows below.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The House is pushing toward a Friday vote on the next coronavirus aid package, as Speaker Nancy Pelosi encourages Congress to "go big" with aid to cash-strapped states and struggling Americans.
Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said Tuesday it appears the sweeping Democratic-led bill "will be ready" to call lawmakers back to Washington. He expects it to be unveiled Tuesday afternoon.
"This is an unprecedented time in our history," Hoyer said about the virus outbreak and economic shutdown. He said Congress needs to act in "unprecedented ways."
But the legislation is heading straight into a Senate roadblock. Senate Republicans are not planning to vote on any new relief until June, after a Memorial Day recess.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says there is no "urgency" to act.
The new package, the fifth since March, is expected to carry another eye-popping price tag. President Donald Trump has signed into law nearly $3 trillion in aid approved by Congress.
Its centerpiece is likely to be money to states and cities that are struggling to avoid layoffs in the face of skyrocketing health care costs and plummeting tax receipts during the economic shutdown. There will money for virus testing and another round of direct cash payments and unemployment benefits for Americans, Pelosi said. She has not disclosed the cost.
As states weigh the health risks of re-opening, McConnell said the nation needs to "regroup and find a more sustainable middle ground between total lockdown and total normalcy."
The Republican leader on Tuesday called the emerging Democratic bill a "big laundry list of pet priorities."
On a conference call with House colleagues Monday, Pelosi urged Democrats to "go big," according to person unauthorized to discuss the private caucus call and granted anonymity.
"To those who would suggest a pause, I would say the hunger doesn't take a pause, the rent doesn't take a pause," Pelosi said late Monday on MSNBC. "We have a big need. It's monumental."
One provision holding up the package is how best to funnel direct cash to households. A proposal from Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., a co-chair of the Progressive Caucus, could be crucial to winning votes from the more liberal lawmakers. It would provide three-months of guaranteed paychecks for those making less than $100,000 a year.
Hoyer said the Jayapal proposal remains "under consideration."
With the Capitol still partly closed, Hoyer, D-Md., told lawmakers on the call there would be 72-hour notice before returning to Washington for the vote, which could come Friday, the person said.
But Senate Republicans are in no rush to spend what could be trillions more on aid.
"I don't think we have yet felt the urgency of acting immediately," McConnell told reporters Monday at the Capitol.
McConnell said he has been in close contact with the White House, assessing the aid Congress has already approved in response to the virus outbreak and next steps.
Trump is expected to meet Tuesday with a group of Senate Republicans. "If we decide to go forward, we'll go forward together," McConnell said. His priority is to ensure any new package includes liability protections for health care providers and businesses that are reopening.
Senate Republicans are not expected to act on any further aid until after the Memorial Day recess, according to a senior Republican aide unauthorized to discuss the planning and granted anonymity.
The Senate is set to recess at the end of next week for a previously scheduled break, with senators scheduled to return June 1.
The Senate recently reopened its side of the Capitol while the House remains largely shuttered due the the health concerns.
Senators have been in session since last week, voting on Trump's nominees for judicial and executive branch positions and other issues. The Senate majority, the 53-member Senate Republican conference, is meeting for its regular luncheons most days, including Tuesday, spread out three to a table for social distance. Democrats are convening by phone. Many senators, but not all, are wearing masks.
At least a dozen Capitol police officers and other staff have tested positive for the virus, and at least one senator, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, is in isolation at home after exposure from a staff member who tested positive. Other lawmakers have cycled in and out of quarantine.
From home, Alexander, the chairman of the Senate Health Committee, convened a high-profile hearing Tuesday with Dr. Anthony Fauci and others, on the virus.
Alexander told colleagues that ensuring adequate testing will the key to re-opening the economy and schools.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer warned that if Trump and congressional Republicans "slow walk" more aid they will be repeating President Herbert Hoover's "tepid" response to the Great Depression.
"It should be big and it should be bold," Schumer said Monday.
