House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday said the next round of coronavirus legislation must be “specific” to helping combat and recover from the escalating epidemic, after Democrats had packed one of their last antes with measures tied to issues like collective bargaining and carbon emissions.
“This … fourth bill will be about recovery — again, always addressing the emergency and mitigation aspects of it, but to talk about how we go forward and in a way that is specific to the coronavirus,” Mrs. Pelosi, California Democrat, said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
“I want to be very specific — I hear people saying, ’They’re doing this wish list’ — that isn’t so,” she said.
“We have agreed in our negotiations that everything that we’re doing is specific to the coronavirus challenge, and that would be infrastructure for water systems [that are] so essential, broadband because so many people are relying on telecommunication and social media and the rest,” she said.
President Trump last week signed into law a $2.2 trillion economic rescue package that will provide billions of dollars for small businesses and cut direct checks of at least $1,200 to millions of Americans, among other items.
That followed previous legislation that shored up funding for federal health programs and added money for some social safety net programs.
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Mrs. Pelosi also told The New York Times that in the next round of coronavirus legislation, Democrats could push to retroactively restore the state and local tax deduction. The GOP’s 2017 tax-cut law put a $10,000 cap on the benefit.
The deduction, known as SALT in tax-speak, has continued to be a major point of contention.
The benefit disproportionately falls on the wealthy, but Democrats have complained that Republicans intentionally targeted the deduction in their tax package to hurt largely blue, high-tax states like New York and California.
A spokesperson for Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley, Iowa Republican, quickly poured cold water on Mrs. Pelosi’s trial balloon, calling it a nonstarter.
“Millionaires don’t need a new tax break as the federal government spends trillions of dollars to fight a pandemic,” the spokesperson said.
A spokesman for Mrs. Pelosi said any change would be tailored toward the middle class.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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