MORGANTOWN — Sens. Joe Manchin and Shelley Moore Capito offered their opinions – positive and negative – on Wednesday on the GOP HEALS Act COVID-19 $1trillon stimulus package.
Manchin, D-W.Va., has four priorities he wants to see incorporated. Capito said it touches all the right bases but she sees room for talks.
Like its predecessor, CARES, HEALS contains a variety of elements. Among them, it extends the CARES Paycheck Protection Program for small businesses; it adds flexibility to states spending ability, including allowing states to backfill COVID-related revenue shortfalls; it continues the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation benefit, but at a lower amount, $200 instead of $600 and a formula to avoid unemployed workers from earning more by not working; and it provides another round of $1,200 per person stimulus checks for those earning up to $75,000 per year.
Manchin
“There’s a lot of things we could work on in that” bill, Manchin said. Among the good things, itrededicates unspent CARES and adds to it.
But he wants the four adjustments. One is aid for children and youth homelessness. There are more than 1.5 million students facing homelessness cross the country, he said, with more than 10,000 in West Virginia. A Manchin bill with bipartisan support, called the Emergency Family Stabilization Act, proposes an $800 million emergency fund to insert into the bill for the Administration for Children and Families to use on the problem.
“It would be a godsend to Appalachia, West Virginia, it really would, he said.”
He also wants dedicated assistance for rural hospitals, he said. There is about $62 billion unused from $175 billion of health care funding in CARES and another $25 billion in HEALS. He wants to see 20% of that, $40 billion, to go to rural hospitals.
He wants to see money devoted to broadband connectivity. He’s on a separate bill that would devote $160 million to set up WiFi hot spots in rural libraries.
His final item is relief for local governments. President Trump and Treasury Secretary Mnuchin were among those, he said, who stressed that 45% of CARES money sent to states was to go directly to cities and counties, based on population and COVID cases; that would amount to $560 million of West Virginia’s $1.25 billion.
But Gov. Jim Justice has so far sent out only $44 million in response to applications. “But the governor is using this as a political slush fund. … No governor should be able to use that money at their discretion. He’s playing games with this thing.”
This is happening in about 20-22 states, Manchin said, under governors of both parties, so Manchin is among senators of both parties working to insert guidelines on how that money should be allocated.
Manchin said he expects some kind of compromise on the difference between the $200 and $600 unemployment proposals. He always felt it was fair that someone losing job because of the health care crisis should be kept whole. He hopes they might reach a $300 to $400 figure.
HEALS is a Senate GOP response to the House HEROES Act, which came over and was set aside because the GOP objected non-COVID Democratic pork spending in the bill, as some in the House and Senate have said. That included such things as stimulus checks for illegal aliens, $10,000 student loan forgiveness and federal mandates on how states run elections.
But Democrats are objecting to GOP pork in HEALS, including spending on the military, the border wall and a new FI building.
Manchin said those items are subject to negotiation. “You would think that most of your attention should be toward the health care needs, how we get back and how we keep the economy alive until we get a vaccine that works.”
That might be another five months, he said, and they’re ready to enter the negotiation stage.
“This bill is not ready for prime time, I can tell you that,” he said.
Capito
Capito said the bill focuses on three main areas: children, kids and getting kids back to school; jobs and economy, such as the unemployment benefits, stimulus checks, and the PPP; and health care – testing, therapeutics, the vaccine, support hospitals.
“It touches all the bases in my opinion without throwing blankets of money out there that are misdirected.” It also includes the flex for backfilling budgets hit COVID. “I pushed for that so I am glad that one was in there.”
She agrees that the $200 unemployment benefit will be negotiated. The lower figure was intended to counteract the work disincentive the $600 payment created, where employers are having a hard time calling people back.
The duration of liability protection for employers, schools and health care providers – to limit lawsutis for COVID exposure – also will be discussed, she said.
On Justice’s handling of the CARES money, she said again she understands he’s been holding part of it while awaiting the green light to backfill state and local revenue losses. HEALS mandates a 25% allotment to cities and counties; she thinks the 45% was an aspirational goal.
For rural hospitals, she thinks that instead of a specific 20% set-aside, it would be better to include provisions for hospitals that rely heavily on Medicaid funding. That was in the first bill. “There’s no reason for me to believe that wouldn’t be the same.”
She thinks the pork should go, and will be on the table for reprioritization. “I absolutely think we ought to target this toward COVID. That’s what we said we were going to do,” she said, HEALS should
not have $30 billion for Department of Defense, $1.5 billion for the FBI building or $175 milloin for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
The Senate works through Aug. 7 then begin its August recess, Capito said, and the goal is to have the bill complete by then. If the two sides are too far apart, they may have to do a patch bill to handle the unemployment benefits, which expire Friday, and the eviction moratorium. But negotiations on HEALS would continue.
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