Coronavirus outbreak

The White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, and the treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, were on Capitol Hill on Saturday, for talks with aides to Senate Republicans over the next coronavirus relief package.The stakes are high. US unemployment rose again on Friday after months of falls, enhanced benefits are due to run out and Americans unable to pay rent are starting to be evicted. The expanded unemployment benefit officially expires on 31 July, but due to the way states process payments, the cut-off is effectively Saturday.On Friday Richard Neal, a Massachusetts Democrat who chairs the House ways and means committee, said the US was on “the eve of an economic catastrophe”.Nonetheless the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, sent members of his party home, promising a proposal by Monday.Facing re-election this year, McConnell also went home. At an event in Kentucky, he said: “This has been one heck of a challenge for everybody in the country. Hopefully we can come together behind some package we can agree on in the next few weeks.”In a joint statement, the Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, and the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, said: “We call upon Leader McConnell to get serious.”In a tweet referring to the pandemic-inspired unemployment boost of $600 a week, Pelosi added: “The Senate must take up the House-passed Heroes Act and extend this critical lifeline for working families.”The Democratic-held House passed that $3tn relief package in May but the Senate is held by Republicans and has not taken it up.Among other issues, Republicans are debating reducing the special unemployment payments, which they say provide a disincentive to seek work. The White House has suggested cutting the payments to as little as $100.Many regular Americans counter that the funds are vital, not just to meet rent but to buy food and other necessary items.The economy has been battered by the coronavirus pandemic, which is now surging in mainly Republican-run states which reopened from late May. Democrat-run California, an early hotspot, is also seeing a resurgence.More than 4.1m cases have been recorded in the US and more than 145,000 people have died.The Trump White House sees economic recovery as key to the president’s hopes of re-election. But amid protests over police brutality and racism, and confrontations between protesters and federal agents in Portland, Oregon, Trump has also pivoted to law and order.On Friday, Trump added a new priority to the relief package: money to build a new FBI headquarters, across the street in Washington from his own hotel.McConnell’s proposal is expected to include new direct $1,200 cash payments to many Americans, $105bn to help reopen schools and $25bn for virus testing.The Senate leader’s top priority is a liability shield to protect businesses, hospitals and others against Covid-19 lawsuits. Trump is pressing to reopen schools, threatening to withhold funding from those which do not return fully in September.The White House was also pushing a payroll tax cut. Senate Republicans rejected the move, which would pull revenue away from social security and Medicare in the middle of an economic and public health disaster.“This is disarray,” Pelosi said on Friday at the Capitol.Her statement with Schumer said: “We had expected to be working throughout this weekend. It is simply unacceptable that Republicans have had this entire time to reach consensus among themselves and continue to flail.”Amid widespread criticism of his response to the pandemic, Trump trails Joe Biden in most national and battleground state polls. The nonpartisan Cook Report website recently said a “Democratic tsunami” may be on the way.But some observers counter that an election held amid social restrictions due to the pandemic, and subject to Republican voter suppression efforts, could give Trump a chance of a second win in the electoral college. More