House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy sent a letter Friday to 23 House Democrats who signed a letter to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi back in September threatening to sign a discharge petition if no larger deal on a coronavirus package was agreed to.
McCarthy’s office hand-delivered the letter Friday afternoon, first obtained by the Daily Caller, after Democrats in the House blocked a Republican-led move to reconsider a coronavirus relief bill Thursday. It was the 40th time Democrats blocked a package of Republican stimulus bills from passing the House. McCarthy’s letter asks the 23 Democrats to negotiate with Republicans in order to work out a bipartisan coronavirus package.
The 23 moderate Democrats wrote a letter to Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer in September urging them to “continue bipartisan negotiations” in order to “deliver meaningful relief for the American people,” however, nothing has been passed since. The 23 Democrats threatened to sign a discharge petition, which would bring a bill out of committee to the floor for a vote.
“On September 27, nearly two months ago, you signed a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi stating: ‘It is our request that you continue to negotiate towards a bipartisan deal. Otherwise, a discharge petition is the only potential option for COVID-19 related action on the House Floor…’ As we know, no bipartisan deal has yet been reached,” McCarthy said in his letter to the 23 Democrats.
READ THE LETTER HERE:
McCarthy Letter on COVID Re… by Henry Rodgers
McCarthy also criticized Pelosi for not reaching a deal on a coronavirus stimulus package before recess.
“Perhaps more discouraging is that even after Speaker Pelosi failed to secure a deal before recessing the House ahead of the election, you did not live up to your word to sign Representative Jaime Herrera Beutler’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) discharge petition. This legislation would free up $137.5 billion of unspent PPP funds. It would allow small businesses to take a second PPP loan and extends the PPP deadline until December 31, 2020,” McCarthy continued in the letter. (RELATED: House Democrats Block Latest Republican Effort To Pass A Stimulus Bill)
Pelosi has continued to refuse offers from the White House and has pushed for a stimulus exceeding $2 trillion.