U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi speaks during a press conference on the Capitol Hill in Washington D.C., the United States, on May 14, 2020. (Photo by Ting Shen/Xinhua)
Democrat leaders said they would continue negotiating with the Trump Administration, but "will not go along with the meager legislative proposals that fail to address the gravity of the health and economic situation our country faces."
WASHINGTON, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- The White House had rejected Democrats' offer for a roughly 2-trillion-U.S.-dollar COVID-19 relief package, U.S. media reported Friday.
As part of a closed-door meeting with White House officials Thursday, Democrats offered to cut their 3.4-trillion-dollar relief proposal by 1 trillion dollars if Republicans would agree to increase their roughly 1-trillion-dollar package by the same amount, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Friday at a joint press conference with Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, The Hill reported.
"'We'll take down a trillion, if you add a trillion in.' They said absolutely not," Pelosi told reporters, adding she would make the offer once again as part of negotiations with White House officials on Friday.
That strategy, effectively trying to split the difference between the two sides, would result in legislation costing between 2 trillion dollars and 2.4 trillion dollars, the report said.
Pelosi and Schumer are expected to meet with White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin Friday afternoon to continue negotiations over the next COVID-19 relief package.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer speaks at a press conference during the Senate impeachment trial on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C., the United States, on Jan. 25, 2020. (Photo by Ting Shen/Xinhua)
"We remain committed to continue negotiating and reaching a fair agreement with the Administration, but we will not go along with the meager legislative proposals that fail to address the gravity of the health and economic situation our country faces," Pelosi and Schumer said earlier Friday in a joint statement following the release of the July's job report.
"We call upon the White House's negotiators to join us once again at the negotiating table today to secure a bipartisan agreement to put children, families and workers first," they said.
U.S. employers added 1.8 million jobs in July, and the unemployment rate dropped to 10.2 percent amid reopening efforts, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday.
"The latest jobs report shows that the economic recovery spurred by the investments Congress has passed is losing steam and more investments are still urgently needed to protect the lives and livelihoods of the American people. Millions of Americans are still hurting," Pelosi and Schumer said.
The extra 600-dollar weekly unemployment benefit for every unemployed, which benefited nearly 30 million Americans, expired last week, as Republican and Democratic lawmakers failed to reach a deal over the next COVID-19 relief bill.
Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody's Analytics, has recently warned that the U.S. economy is at serious risk of sliding back into recession unless Congress and the Trump administration come up with another fiscal rescue package before Congress goes on its August recess. ■