Pelosi on the coronavirus stimulus price tag she's willing to settle for: '$3.4 trillion'
CNN/Stylemagazine.com Newswire | 8/4/2020, 11:51 a.m.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi speaks during her weekly news conference at the Capitol on July 31, 2020 in Washington, DC. Speaker Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer are expected to speak by phone with White House officials throughout the weekend as they continue to negotiations about extending unemployment benefits amidst the coronavirus pandemic./Credit: Drew Angerer/Getty Images
By Manu Raju, Senior Congressional Correspondent
(CNN) -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told CNN on Tuesday that she still wants a sweeping stimulus deal this week -- but she made it clear she is not budging on the price tag put forward by House Democrats, reflecting how far apart the two sides are despite days of talks.
Asked if she has an idea on the price tag she's willing to settle for, Pelosi said bluntly: "Yeah, $3.4 trillion."
That price tag has been rejected by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who last week put forward the Senate GOP plan that would cost roughly $1 trillion and has attacked House Democrats' $3 trillion-plus bill that passed their chamber more than two months ago.
The top Democratic and White House negotiators have held hours of talks this week in hopes of reaching a deal on another round of stimulus spending as key deadlines on extending a federal eviction moratorium and federal unemployment benefits have come and gone.
Pelosi, when asked if it's really feasible to get a deal this week given how far apart the two sides are, said, "At some point you just have to freeze the design."
Pelosi said that she hopes they can have a bipartisan agreement this week so there are votes in the House by next week, given that they will vote to hold a Rules Committee meeting to consider the parameters for the House floor debate and there would need to be time to hammer out the legislative language and get cost estimates.
Yet, Pelosi said that currently both sides are still talking to the other about how much money is needed for various programs that each side has proposed.
"We are just right now identifying the justification for what we're saying it costs -- how the money would be spent," Pelosi said. "And we're asking the same for some of the things they are talking about, so that we have a clear understanding. So it's productive in that regard. And now we just have to negotiate what comes next."
Pelosi added: "You have to show how you would spend it, in addition to establishing the need, have it work, and why that much money, and once we come to an amount, and I think we'll come to an agreement."
