Thursday, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) said an agreement on the reported $900 billion coronavirus relief package “has basically been reached.”
Kaine told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that he thinks Congress “is there” on reaching a deal after multiple failed attempts at reaching an agreement in recent months as the United States continues to battle the coronavirus and the effects of lockdowns put in place. He went on to tout the package as “a good deal.”
“I think we’re there,” Kaine asserted. “I think the agreement has basically been reached, and we’re now, you know, putting the legislative text together. I was very involved with the gang of eight that negotiated this deal. Lindsey Graham and I, Mike Crapo, Rob Portman, Chris Coons, Dick Blumenthal, we worked on the two hard pieces: the state and local aid and the liability. And we narrowed our gaps, but we couldn’t get there. But then we went back to the gang of eight and said you shouldn’t let this block everything else because state and local aid and liability don’t have a December 31 drop-dead date. We can talk about those in January, but we’ve got to get help for the unemployed now.
“So, I think it’s going to be a good deal — a good deal for a short period of time, just to the end of the first quarter, but the president-elect has said that COVID economic recovery package is his first legislative priority,” he continued. “So, we’ll be working on this after this emergency relief package. I feel good about where we’re going.”
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