Mitch McConnell: GOP held the line on ‘blank check’ for state and local governments

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Wednesday said that after nearly two weeks of delay, Democrats failed to attach a “blank check” for state and local governments in the latest round of coronavirus relief legislation.

The Kentucky Republican said it’s an “indisputable fact” that Democrats blocked a clean extension of funding for a small business lending program that quickly exhausted its funding from an earlier $2.2 trillion package.

“They wanted to extract other things. Fortunately, what they wanted to extract the most I refused to go along with, and the White House backed me up, and that was we’re not yet ready to just send a blank check down to state and local governments to spend any way they choose to,” he told radio host Hugh Hewitt.

Mr. McConnell said there was a “tranche” of money for states and localities in the earlier $2.2 trillion package with the stipulation that the spending had to be coronavirus-related.

“I think we need to have a full debate not only about if we do state and local how will they spend it, but also we haven’t had much discussion about adding $2.7 trillion to the national debt and the way that could indeed also threaten the future of the country,” he said.

The Senate approved a nearly $500 billion package on Tuesday that included $310 billion for the “Paycheck Protection Program,” plus $60 billion for injury disaster loans and grants, $75 billion for hospitals and $25 billion for coronavirus testing.

Mr. McConnell and Senate Republicans’ efforts to pass a straight $250 billion extension of PPP funding had been blocked by Democrats.

The majority leader said it’s worth talking about potentially adding bankruptcy provisions for states.

“There’s no good reason for it not to be available,” he said. “My guess is their first choice would be for the federal government to borrow money from future generations and send it down to them now so they don’t have to do that.”

But he said the idea of additional assistance for states and localities needs to be thoroughly evaluated.

“There’s not going to be any desire on the Republican side to bail out state pensions by borrowing money from future generations,” Mr. McConnell said.

He also expressed skepticism that a push for uniform rules on liability for companies in the process of reopening during the pandemic would make it through the Democratic-led House.

“They are a wholly owned subsidiary of the plaintiffs’ bar and rarely do anything that discourages litigation,” Mr. McConnell said. “I don’t want to get your hopes up that this very necessary step could actually be achieved with a Nancy Pelosi-led House.”