WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 06th August, 2020) US lawmakers and the White House are making some progress in negotiations on the next big COVID-19 relief package, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters on Thursday.
"We have been making some progress, proceeding in a positive way, we're not there there yet. I've said we see a light at the end the tunnel. We just don't know now long the tunnel is [and] the light at the end of the tunnel may be the freight train of the virus," Pelosi said.
While the list of disagreements remained long, ranging from child nutrition to a moratorium on evicting renters for non payment, Pelosi - joined by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Shumer - refused to consider Republican demands that expired $600 weekly payments to unemployed Americans be resumed without a temporary extension as suggested by some.
"We're not having a short-term extension," Pelosi said.
Hours earlier, the Labor Department reported that an additional 1.186 Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week, the lowest level since the COVID-19 outbreak reached pandemic status in the US but the 20th consecutive week in which claims topped 1 million.
Economists credit the $600 subsidy for sustaining Americans amid and a reason for strong job creation in the previous two months. The payments, part of the original $2.2 trillion CARES Act, expired at the end of July.
