On The Money: Momentum stalls for COVID-19 relief bill | Congress barrels toward ‘COVID cliff’ | House passes stopgap bill to avoid government shutdown

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THE BIG DEAL—Momentum stalls for COVID-19 relief bill: Momentum appeared to stall Wednesday on a COVID-19 relief bill amid differences not only between the parties, but between Senate Republicans and the White House over what should be included in the legislation.

• Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) accused Democratic leaders of blocking progress, casting doubt on reaching a deal this week, citing Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) swift rejection Tuesday evening of a new $916 billion proposal offered by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin
• The measure would provide $160 billion in funding to state and local governments, a priority of Democrats, but also give businesses “robust” liability protections for businesses and schools, a priority of Republicans.

The fresh uncertainty over negotiations that appeared to be picking up momentum last week put a damper on the stock market, which plunged into the red shortly after McConnell spoke Wednesday. The Hill’s Alexander Bolton and Naomi Jagoda tell us why here.

Struggle to strike a deal: Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Wednesday that the White House’s $916 billion plan was encouraging in that it showed that Republicans back the size of the moderates’ plan. But he also said that the White House proposal shouldn’t take the place of the bipartisan group’s discussions.

• The group of moderates released more details of their $908 billion proposal, which has played a key role in the negotiations in recent days. 
• However, they didn’t provide specifics about how they’d address state and local aid and liability protection. Instead, their document states that they have agreements in principle on these topics “as the basis for good faith negotiations.”

Read more: Support grows for stimulus checks, but they may wait

LEADING THE DAY

Congress barrels toward ‘COVID cliff’: The clock is ticking for Congress to avoid the so-called COVID cliff by extending a slew of coronavirus-related protections for housing and unemployment that are set to expire at the end of the month.

• Expanded support for jobless workers, a nationwide eviction ban and emergency paid sick leave are all set to cut off on Dec. 31, leaving millions on the verge of financial peril at the start of 2021.
• Economists and advocacy groups are warning that a lapse in protections, even for a few weeks, is now largely unavoidable with just weeks before the deadline. 
• A brief gap would cause significant economic damage, and the inaction in Congress is causing increased anxiety for the most vulnerable Americans at a time of record coronavirus cases, hospitalizations and deaths.

“We essentially are going to make a choice over the next two weeks over whether we want to have a double-dip recession or not,” said Joe Brusuelas, chief economist at audit and tax firm RSM. I explain why here.

Unemployment aid shortfall: 

• The CARES Act added $600 to weekly state unemployment insurance payouts, extended jobless aid to workers who don’t qualify for the traditional program and provided another 13 weeks of support to workers who exhausted their state benefits. 
• The bill also provided more federal funding for states to extend jobless benefits and fund work-sharing programs that subsidize wages for struggling businesses.

But extending unemployment benefits is not as simple as flipping a switch, warned Michele Evermore, senior policy analyst at the National Employment Law Project. Millions of Americans who are eligible for benefits beyond the Dec. 31 deadline will likely go without jobless aid for at least a brief period due to the amount of time needed to update antiquated state unemployment claim systems.

Eviction timebomb: A national eviction ban imposed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is set to expire on Dec. 31, and renters who’ve benefited from the protection will be obligated to pay missed rent and other fees that accrued during the year.

“The moratorium is protecting a significant number of tenants from eviction, and in that way it remains a critical pandemic mitigation strategy,” said Emily Benfer, a law professor at Wake Forest University who has studied the link between evictions and COVID-19.

• Roughly 14 million households are facing eviction if the CDC ban is allowed to lapse, according to federal data analyzed by the investment bank Stout Risius Ross. 
• More than 33 percent of U.S. households fear they will be evicted or foreclosed on within two months.

“The individuals, children, and the adults facing eviction will not only be at increased risk of contracting and even dying of COVID-19, they will also be at extreme risk of the associated health harms,” Benfer said.

House passes stopgap bill to avoid government shutdown: The House on Wednesday passed a weeklong stopgap bill to keep the government open through Dec. 18 before current funding expires Friday as lawmakers continue to negotiate a longer-term spending package and coronavirus relief.

The bill passed handily, 343-67, and now heads to the Senate for approval. It is expected to be quickly cleared for President Trump’s signature.

The background:

• House Democratic leaders had initially hoped to wrap up legislative work for the year by the end of this week so that members could go home in time to quarantine for two weeks from any potential COVID-19 exposure from traveling and gathering in the Capitol before spending Christmas with their families.
• But with talks over an all-encompassing spending package known as an omnibus and coronavirus relief moving slowly, lawmakers acknowledged that they would need more time. Both sides are keen to avoid a damaging government shutdown during the height of the pandemic.

“This is something we have to do to keep the government working. But we ought not to believe or pretend or represent this is the way we ought to do business. It is not. It is a function of procrastination, a function of failing to come together and making compromises,” said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.).

The Hill’s Cristina Marcos tells us what comes next here.

GOOD TO KNOW

• The Supreme Court heard arguments Wednesday over whether it should find the structure of a key housing regulator unconstitutional and void an agreement struck with the Treasury Department over the handling of revenue from the government-sponsored enterprises it oversees.
• Hunter Biden, the son of President-elect Joe Biden, said Wednesday that the U.S. attorney’s office in Delaware is investigating his tax affairs.
• More than half of small businesses say they won’t fully recover from the COVID-19 recession until the second half of 2021 or later, according to a new survey from Wells Fargo.

ODDS AND ENDS

• A broad bipartisan effort to pass legislation protecting patients from massive “surprise” medical bills is now on life support as House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal (D-Mass.) digs in on a separate proposal.
• News that President-elect Joe Biden has picked former Obama administration Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to run the agency again has drawn disappointment from some who felt he was too aligned with major agriculture corporations during his previous stint.