US: Senate aims for Thursday vote on scaled-down coronavirus aid bill

The US Senate later this week aims to vote on a drastically scaled-back Republican coronavirus aid bill, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Tuesday, despite opposition from Democrats who are needed for any measure to be enacted into law. The bill, which some senior Republican aides described as a $300b package that was reduced from the $1 trillion McConnell advocated in July, would face a vote on Thursday. Barring a breakthrough, it could be the final attempt to pass a fifth coronavirus aid bill before the Nov. 3 presidential and congressional elections. With Democrats holding out for a far more comprehensive bill to further stimulate the economy and help battle the coronavirus, McConnell said in a Senate floor speech: “We want to agree, where bipartisanship is possible ... and then keep arguing over the rest later.” But House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi has argued that a subsequent bill would be too far off to avert layoffs of police, fire and medical personnel unless emergency aid is rushed to state and local governments. The bill currently being considered would not provide the billions of dollars in aid that US airlines, struggling through the pandemic, had lobbied for, according to two congressional aides.<br/>