Happy Thursday and welcome back to On The Money. I’m Sylvan Lane, and here’s your nightly guide to everything affecting your bills, bank account and bottom line.
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THE BIG DEAL—Pelosi cites progress, but says COVID-19 relief deal might be post-election: Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said she and the Trump administration are nearing a deal on a COVID-19 relief package, but that it might not happen before Election Day.
She also ramped up pressure on the GOP Senate over whether a bill will make it to President Trump’s desk. Republican senators have voiced opposition to the size of the package she is negotiating with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
“It’s only about time,” Pelosi told reporters in the Capitol. “I think it is in range for us to pass it before the election. But it’s not up to me to decide what the Senate does.”
The Hill’s Mike Lillis has more here.
The timeline:
- Pelosi did not commit to a House vote before Nov. 3 if she and Mnuchin can seal a deal before then.
- She also suggested that the logistics involved in writing legislation on that scale — including the time it takes legislative counsel to vet the bill and the Congressional Budget Office to provide a cost estimate — would make it tough.
- But the speaker said she remains optimistic that an agreement is within sight, noting that the White House has made concessions on funding for health care providers, testing, and the development and distribution of an eventual vaccine.
What’s left to figure out: Pelosi and Mnuchin have yet to resolve several key policy differences as they race for an agreement.
- Pelosi named two in particular: more funding for state and local governments, demanded by Democrats; and liability language to protect schools and businesses from lawsuits, demanded by Republicans.
- She also suggested there are lingering divisions over funding to reopen schools, promoting the need for more teachers, support staff and infrastructure improvements such as ventilation.
LEADING THE DAY
Eviction crisis sparked by pandemic disproportionately hits minorities: The eviction crisis exacerbated by the pandemic is hitting minorities much harder than other Americans, and experts are concerned the problem will only get worse in the coming months as the coronavirus recession drags on.
- A review of more than 8,000 eviction cases by the Center for Public Integrity found that almost two-thirds of the tenants lived in areas with above average minority representation with a median household income below $42,000.
- The thousands of evictions filed spanned late March to early July, primarily in Florida and Georgia.
Residents on the brink include people like Bishop Donald Harper, who was making nearly $5,000 a month as a chef for Universal’s Cabana Bay Beach Resort in Orlando, Fla., before the pandemic hit. Harper, 55, was soon furloughed. For Harper and millions of other Americans who have lost their job because of the pandemic, rent is still due. The Hill’s Marty Johnson has more here.
Weekly jobless claims fall to 787K: The seasonally adjusted number of Americans who filed their first claims for unemployment insurance fell to 787,000 in the week that ended on Oct. 17, the Labor Department reported Thursday.
- Initial weekly jobless claims fell by 55,000 applications from the previous week’s revised total of 842,000.
- The Labor Department initially reported a total of 898,000 initial weekly claims for the week ending Oct. 10, but revised that figure down by 56,000 claims.
- The seasonally adjusted number of initial claims last week came in well below economists’ projections of roughly 860,000 new applications, likely due to the large revision down from the previous week’s total. The unadjusted number of claims also fell to 756,617, falling 73,125 from the prior week.
Last week marked the first time since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic that initial weekly claims fell below 800,000, but remain staggeringly above historic highs. I break down the data here.
GOOD TO KNOW
- Black Americans are paying more than white Americans to own a home, making it harder for Black households to accumulate housing wealth at the same rate as their white counterparts, according to new research from MIT.
- Top Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee pressed the IRS about its readiness for next year’s tax-filing season, given the many obstacles the IRS has faced this year as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
- Goldman Sachs will pay $2.9 billion to settle charges that it violated federal anti-corruption laws by bribing government officials to secure billions in business for the investment bank’s Malaysian subsidiary, the Justice Department announced Thursday.
- A new executive order from President Trump makes it easier to hire and fire civil servants that work on policy, stripping some protections from career employees before a potential change in administration.
ODDS AND ENDS
- The Senate Judiciary Committee voted Thursday to subpoena the chief executives of Facebook and Twitter a week after both platforms limited the spread of a controversial article about Hunter Biden, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s son.
- Travel industry groups called on the Trump administration to pursue an approach to COVID-19 testing that would obviate the need for quarantines and travel bans in order to safely re-open travel.