Pelosi, Schumer set for first meeting with WH team on new COVID-19 relief bill

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) are set to meet on Tuesday afternoon with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.

The meeting, which two sources confirmed to The Hill, will be the first time administration officials and Democratic leadership have sat down for face-to-face discussions about a fifth coronavirus relief package.

It comes as Congress and the White House are under intense pressure to provide more relief with coronavirus cases climbing across the country and unemployment stuck in the double digits.

“Well, our message to them is let’s get going,” Schumer told CNN’s “New Day” during an interview on Tuesday morning.

Schumer then pointed to differences between the White House and congressional Republicans as a reason for the stalled talks.

“The Republicans don’t even seem to have their own act together. It’s hard to negotiate when the president says one thing, Senate Republicans say another,” he said.

“We hope they’re going to be unified and present something to us … in detail,” Schumer added.

Lawmakers and the administration have weeks to get a deal before Congress is scheduled to leave town until early September.

Administration officials have said they want a deal by the end of the month, to line up with the soon-to-expire federal increase in unemployment benefits. The Senate is scheduled to leave town on Aug. 7, giving negotiators more flexibility.

There are several divisions not just among Republicans and Democrats but GOP senators and the White House over key policy proposals lawmakers are debating including in the next coronavirus bill.

The House previously passed a $3 trillion relief bill largely along party lines. McConnell and the White House are eyeing a $1 trillion measure, though senators have acknowledged that could creep upward.

Tuesday is poised to be a crucial day in the negotiations. Mnuchin and Meadows will meet on Tuesday morning with a key group of Senate Republican negotiators: Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander, Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby and Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), a member of leadership and chairman of a subcommittee that oversees health and education funding.

Republican senators and the White House are divided both on whether to provide new money for testing and what restrictions to place on money for schools.

“Well, just a better understanding of how we can … most effectively use federal dollars to help 135,000 public and private schools, and 6,000 colleges, open safely this fall, as much as possible in-person. That’s what I would hope to do,” Alexander told reporters on Monday night.