Second stimulus check updates: Senate GOP schedules vote - Chicago Tribune

WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday that he’s scheduling a procedural vote on a GOP COVID-19 relief bill next week, saying aid to hard-hit businesses shouldn’t be held up by gridlock involving other aid proposals.

Democrats filibustered a GOP-drafted aid bill last month and recent talks on a larger deal between Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., fell apart this past weekend, probably for good.

The COVID relief debate appears to have gone back to a phase in which the participants have largely given up and are devoting time and effort to political positioning ahead of the election rather than negotiations and compromise.

Opinion polls show that additional coronavirus relief is a higher priority for most voters than quickly approving Trump’s nomination of Appeals Court Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court.

Under Senate rules, McConnell can call for a re-vote on the September legislation, which was filibustered by Democrats as insufficient.

To recap, talks on the latest potential round of COVID relief began in July, collapsed in August, and were revived last month.

They then cratered again on Saturday after Trump’s latest $1.8 trillion proposal took heavy fire from both Democrats and Trump’s GOP allies.