House releases corona aid bill; Senate, Trump balk

The House Appropriations Committee has released an emergency appropriations bill to address the outbreak of the coronavirus, but the next steps are uncertain.

The House leadership has announced a vote later today, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is working with Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin to try to come up with a bill that the Republican-controlled Senate and President Donald Trump can support.

Senate Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman John Hoeven, R-N.D., told The Hagstrom Report today that neither the Republicans nor the Trump administration would support the current House bill.

The bill contains nutrition provisions, but Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, who testified before the Senate Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee today, told reporters that he has not read it.

Beginning on Page 11, the bill includes provisions to provide food to children during school closures and provides waivers to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) regulations for “low-income jobless workers.”

–The Hagstrom Report