Our live coverage has ended for the night. Read more about the negotiations here.
Congress has now averted a government shutdown by passing a stop-gap bill.
The Senate has passed a two-day continuing resolution to keep the government funded as Covid relief negotiations continue. The resolution passed by voice vote.
The two-day continuing resolution was passed by the House earlier Friday evening.?
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Friday in a floor speech that “as of right now we have not yet reached a final agreement, regretfully.”
“I believe all sides feel we’re making good progress on a major relief bill… But, alas, we are not there yet. But, alas, we are not there yet. Given that our urgent task is to pass a stopgap government funding measure, there’s no reason why the federal government funding should lapse while we hammer out our remaining difference,” he said,
Vermont Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, who has been pushing for $1,200 stimulus checks along with GOP Sen. Josh Hawley, spoke on the floor, saying, “I will object to any attempt by the Senate to pass an omnibus appropriations bill and leave town before passing a Covid relief bill with substantial direct payments going to working people.”
But Sanders said, “Let us get this package passed. Let’s make certain that we have direct payments to working families and with that I will withdraw my objection.”
The US House of Representatives has passed a two-day continuing resolution to keep the government funded after midnight.
The measure will now go to the Senate and requires the consent of all 100 senators tonight.
The US House of Representatives is voting right now on a continuing resolution to keep the government funded after midnight.
While it is expected to pass in the House, the measure also requires the consent of all 100 senators tonight, which is in doubt.
Republican Sen. Josh Hawley told CNN earlier today that he would object if he doesn’t get a readout of where things are in the talks and whether stimulus checks are in fact included.
But Hawley later?tweeted that he would consent to the brief continuing resolution, meaning he doesn’t plan to object and derail a quick vote in the Senate on a stop-gap bill to avert a shutdown at midnight. It’s not yet clear if any other senators might object.
As CNN’s Manu Raju reported,?Sen. Bernie Sanders is being non-committal on whether he would give consent to keep the government open for two more days, saying, “We are thinking about it.”
He has been demanding a vote on his proposal with Hawley for $1,200 stimulus checks.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is looking at a two-day stopgap to keep the government open past midnight tonight, according to a source who has seen the message sent to Senate offices.
The leader’s office is now checking with senators to see if anyone will object to an effort to quickly pass it on the floor tonight.
If a single senator objects, the US government could be headed for a shutdown. But if the shutdown happens only over the weekend, the impact could be minimal.
Republican leaders expect some members to object and prevent quick passage. Republican Sen. Josh Hawley told CNN earlier today that he would object if he doesn’t get a readout of where things are in the talks and whether stimulus checks are in fact included.
After a meeting with Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Republican Whip Sen. John Thune was downbeat about a Covid relief deal being announced today, and said that passing a continuing resolution ahead of the funding deadline at midnight “could prove to be a pretty heavy lift.”
When asked if that means we’re headed for a shutdown, Thune replied, “That would be the likely conclusion,” but he’s still “hoping” they can find a way to avoid it.
On?whether they’ll reach a deal on relief today, Thune said, “That would be a triumph of hope over experience to think we might get a deal today.”
“I think that would be the best-case scenario. Best case scenario of getting something voted on was probably going to be Sunday, but it may be later than that,” he added.
Congressional leaders have been scrambling to finalize a $900 billion Covid-19 relief deal ahead of tonight’s midnight deadline to fund the government.
It’s just past 3 p.m. ET — which means there are just nine hours left until the government runs out of money. With no quick resolution in sight, lawmakers are gearing up to work through the weekend.
Relief and the shutdown deadline are tied together since leaders want to tie the relief deal to a $1.4 trillion funding bill to keep the government open through next September.
About a possible stopgap bill: Senate GOP leaders have been openly talking about how it may be necessary to pass a stopgap bill — called a continuing resolution, or CR — to extend the shutdown deadline for a brief window of up to 48 hours, though Democratic leaders have so far been unwilling to embrace that call in an effort to pressure Republicans to finalize a relief deal.
To pull off passage of a short-term funding bill just hours before midnight, it would require bipartisan cooperation and all 100 senators to agree to schedule a vote.
At the moment, that cooperation is lacking, top Republicans say.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell spoke last hour in an effort to close out the outstanding issues over the Covid-19 relief package.?
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said on the floor that the House would be in recess for the next few hours to get a “clearer picture of where we are.”
He told CNN?that there might be a vote tonight and will make a decision at 5 p.m. on whether they’ll have a continuing resolution.
Staff for the leadership are now engaged in a furious round of negotiations to see if they can finalize the agreement among the leaders.?
It is almost certain that votes will spill into the weekend. Hoyer said to be prepared for votes on Saturday and Sunday.
The No. 2 Senate Republican, John Thune, said Friday that Covid-19 relief talks are in the same place.?
Congressional leaders are scrambling to finalize a $900 billion Covid-19 relief deal before tonight’s midnight deadline to fund the government. Relief and the shutdown deadline are tied together since leaders want to tie the relief deal to a $1.4 trillion funding bill to keep the government open through next September.
As congressional leaders scramble to finalize a possible Covid-19 relief deal, there’s a lot of frustration on the floor among rank-and-file House members who are shut out of the talks and have no information about timing, what’s in the deal, or when they may vote — or if they’ll vote soon to keep the government open past midnight, according to members in both parties.
A Republican House member added: “We are hearing nothing?— and it’s outrageous.”
These same members will be asked to vote on both the $900 billion Covid relief proposal — which they haven’t seen — and the $1.4 trillion omnibus spending package to keep the government funding, which they haven’t seen either, within days.
Remember: The possible Covid-19 relief deal and the shutdown deadline are tied together since congressional leaders want to tie the relief deal to a $1.4 trillion funding bill to keep the government open through next September.
Top Republican Sen. John Cornyn said Friday that a government shutdown “would be a mistake,” even it if was just a brief shutdown over the weekend, as the?funding deadline looms at?midnight.
Cornyn said he knows something will happen tonight, and hopes a short-term continuing resolution will be passed.
“I know something’s gonna happen before midnight and it’s gonna have to originate in the House,” he said.
Cornyn, however, did not know how long the funding deadline will be pushed for, again.
The Texas Republican added that he thinks the current bumps in negotiations “is just the normal pain associated with getting to a final solution.”?
“I think this is one of those situations where everyone wants to get to a conclusion. They also want the very best deal they can. It’s narrowing and I think we’ll get there,” he continued.
Reporters just asked House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer if they were going to put a continuing resolution on the floor today.
He’s now on the floor in a conversation with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.
Remember: The possible Covid-19 relief deal and the shutdown deadline are tied together since congressional leaders want to tie the relief deal to a $1.4 trillion funding bill to keep the government open through next September.
Senate GOP leaders have been openly talking about how it may be necessary to pass a stopgap bill — called a continuing resolution, or CR — to extend the shutdown deadline for a brief window of up to 48 hours, though Democratic leaders have so far been unwilling to embrace that call in an effort to pressure Republicans to finalize a relief deal.
Sen. Josh Hawley came off the Senate floor and was frustrated at the lack of information about the Covid-19 relief talks and said he would object to any efforts to pass a short-term continuing resolution until he gets details of what’s in the bill and assurances of what’s in there.
He says he also spoke to Trump yesterday and said Trump didn’t have a clear sense of what’s happening with the talks either.?
“Yeah, I think this is reaching a point of it’s beginning to reach the point of absurdity…. I’m not prepared to sign off on a CR until I know what’s going on,” Hawley said.?
More on this: Relief and the shutdown deadline are tied together since leaders want to tie the relief deal to a $1.4 trillion funding bill to keep the government open through next September.
Senate GOP leaders have been openly talking about how it may be necessary to pass a stopgap bill — called a continuing resolution, or CR — to extend the shutdown deadline for a brief window of up to 48 hours, though Democratic leaders have so far been unwilling to embrace that call in an effort to pressure Republicans to finalize a relief deal.
As lawmakers work to agree on a second Covid-19 relief bill, families across America are still struggling to pay rent as eviction protections are set to run out at the end of the month.
Jasmine Cruz, a 25-year-old single mom, said that after she lost her job during the pandemic, she was not able to afford child care, forcing her to stay home with her son full time.
Now, she’s two months behind on rent and is being evicted.
The National Low Income Housing Coalition reports that communities of color are the hardest hit by the eviction crisis and represent 80% of people facing eviction.
Protip Biswas, who serves as the vice president for homelessness at the United Way of Greater Atlanta, said right now there are more than 2,000 applications for aid in process and thousands more that are waiting.
According to the?US Census Household Pulse Survey, by the end of October, 9.9 million Americans were not up-to-date on their rent or mortgage payments and had little to no confidence that their household could pay next month’s rent or mortgage on time.
Watch:
Congressional lawmakers are working to finalize a second Covid-19 stimulus deal – and they’re trying to do this ahead of tonight’s government shutdown deadline.
As GOP leaders say it’s probably going to be necessary for a short-term spending bill to keep the government open, Democratic leaders are so far keeping mum about whether they favor that approach.
“I hope not,” Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin said when asked if they will have to pass a continuing resolution.
Durbin said even he hasn’t been read into those conversations.
“I don’t know,?really don’t,” he said.?
GOP leaders will need full cooperation in the Senate to pass a short-term spending bill.
Here’s why the two issues are related: Leaders want to tie the relief deal to a $1.4 trillion funding bill to keep the government open through next September.
If lawmakers pass a stop-gap bill to prevent the government from shutting down, it will be the second time they have done so in a short period of time.?
Just last week, the House and Senate?both passed a short-term funding bill?to extend the shutdown deadline to tonight at midnight. It had previously been set for Dec. 11.
Democrats contend that “an agreement was in sight” until Republicans pushed a provision by Sen. Pat Toomey to rein in the Federal Reserve’s emergency lending authority, according to a senior Democratic aide.
Democrats argue it’s attempted to constrain the Biden administration’s efforts to respond to the crisis.
Toomey denies that he’s trying to constrain the incoming Biden administration and argues these programs were meant to wind down at year’s end.?
On the Senate floor, however, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said “talks remain productive” and that he believes a deal “is very close at hand.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell signaled a Covid-19 relief deal is close, saying in a floor speech that “the talks remain productive.”
“In fact, I’m even more optimistic now than I was last night that a bipartisan bicameral framework for a major rescue package is very close at hand,” he said.
“We’re continuing to make significant headway toward another relief package for the American people,” he added.
He noted that he’s been working with Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy “around the clock for several days now.”
McConnell reiterated that the Senate will stay “right here until an agreement is passed, whenever that may be.”
The Kentucky Republican told reporters as he walked into the Capitol Friday that he thinks there “probably will” need to be a continuing resolution passed with the funding deadline looming at midnight.
Asked if we’ll see a deal today, he replied: “Hope so.”
US stocks opened Friday slightly higher, leaving the major indexes on track to close at record highs.
All three major indexes closed at all-time highs Thursday. The Nasdaq is having a particularly strong week, jumping more than 3% so far.?
The gains come despite mounting evidence of an economic slowdown, especially in the jobs market. Investors are hopeful that Congress will soon reach a deal on another round of federal Covid relief before benefits programs expire at the end of the year.
Lawmakers are working today to finalize a $900 billion coronavirus stimulus deal, which is tied to a $1.4 trillion funding package, before money to fund the government runs out at midnight tonight.
We’re not yet sure exactly what’s in the proposed deal, but here’s what we’re expecting:
The leadership is facing pressure from the right and left to tweak the deal before it’s unveiled.
Congressional lawmakers are working to finalize a second Covid-19 stimulus deal – and they’re trying to do this ahead of tonight’s government shutdown deadline.
With just hours left on the clock, lawmakers are now discussing the possibility?of?extending the shutdown deadline, again, to allow more time for negotiations to lock down a deal and push it through the House and Senate.
Here’s why the two issues are related: Leaders want to tie the relief deal to a $1.4 trillion funding bill to keep the government open through next September.
If lawmakers pass a stop-gap bill to prevent the government from shutting down, it will be the second time they have done so in a short period of time.?
Just last week, the House and Senate?both passed a short-term funding bill?to extend the shutdown deadline to tonight at midnight. It had previously been set for Dec. 11.
Congressional leaders had set a Friday deadline to approve a $900 billion pandemic relief deal and tie that proposal to a $1.4 trillion funding package?before the federal government run outs of money?at midnight.
But now they are set to blow right past that deadline.
With no quick resolution in sight, lawmakers are gearing up to work through the weekend. And a key question looms: Will they will be able to avert a government shutdown as the clock ticks down to midnight?
Most lawmakers believe the two sides will agree to extend government funding for a few more days while relief talks continue. But this is Congress, where even the easy things can be hard to do.
Senate GOP leaders have been openly talking about how it may be necessary to pass a stopgap bill — called a continuing resolution, or CR — to extend the shutdown deadline for a brief window of up to 48 hours, though Democratic leaders have so far been unwilling to embrace that call in an effort to pressure Republicans to finalize a relief deal.
