Republicans and Democrats are considering another COVID stimulus of up to $68 BILLION to help restaurants, gyms and small businesses through the Omicron surge, report claims
A bipartisan coalition of senators is in early talks to pass another coronavirus pandemic relief package costing as much as $68 billion, a Wednesday report claimed.
An early version of the legislation appears targeted primarily at businesses currently ailing as the Omicron variant continues to fuel a new wave of infections. That includes restaurants, performance venues, gyms and minor league sports teams, according to the Washington Post.
The discussions in the Senate are reportedly being led by Democrat Ben Cardin of Maryland and Republican Roger Wicker of Mississippi. GOP Senator Susan Collins, as well as Democrats Mark Warner and Maria Cantwell, allegedly are also involved.
The bill is likely to include a mix of new spending dollars and repurposed unused cash from previous relief measures.
It comes days after two House Democrats and one Republican wrote a letter to Congressional leadership urging them to pass a targeted relief package with funds for 'small businesses in the fitness, live events, and travel industries.'
The Biden administration has been criticized for a lagging response to the fast-spreading but less severe Omicron variant. Surging cases have already fueled hundreds of flight cancellations due to staff testing positive, and forced Americans nationwide to wait in hours-long lines to take COVID tests.
School districts in Detroit, Cleveland and Newark among others have also reverted to remote learning over rising infections including among staff and a shortage of adequate testing.
The early discussions for a stimulus package are reportedly being led by Democrat Senator Ben Cardin (left) and Republican Senator Roger Wicker (right)
And despite no new broad lockdown rules, restaurants and small businesses nationwide are closing down to either re-assess their COVID policies or simply because too many workers are calling out sick.
The US saw a staggering 828,417 new COVID cases on January 3, according to the most recently available data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
However as cases surge, deaths and hospitalizations remain relatively low. Multiple studies have so far indicated that the Omicron variant is milder compared to the previously dominant Delta strain that fueled last summer's virus wave.
The CDC recorded 1,559 COVID-linked deaths across the country on January 3.
President Joe Biden acknowledged Americans' frustration but pleaded with them to use newly-expanded resources like increased COVID testing and also to get vaccinated and boosted in brief remarks on Tuesday ahead of his COVID task force meeting.
'I know we’re all tired and frustrated about the pandemic. These coming weeks are going to be challenging,' Biden said, later adding: 'We have the tools to protect people from severe illness due to Omicron if people choose to use the tools.'
DailyMail.com has reached out to the White House for comment on senators' reported fiscal talks.
The first pandemic stimulus package was passed under Donald Trump in March 2020, when COVID first forced broad lockdowns and health requirements. The CARES Act included $2.2 trillion in spending, with American taxpayers receiving one-time check of up to $1,200 and billions of dollars in loans going out to small businesses.
The following year Biden passed the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan with direct payments of up to $1,400 per individual. It also offered billions for schools, state and local governments and small businesses.
But many key programs millions relied on, such as expanded unemployment benefits and the enhanced child tax credit, have since expired, spurring new talks on what kind of aid is still needed as the pandemic nears the end of its second year.
Democrats in Congress have argued that the rising wave of infections calls for extending the child tax benefit that saw families with children under 6 receive as much as $3,600 per child.
That provision has faced opposition by West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin. The extended benefit was reportedly among his biggest hang-ups in Democrats' $1.75 trillion Build Back Better bill, which now appears to be on pause after the key centrist dashed Biden's hopes of passing the package last year.
The Omicron variant has helped fuel a new wave of COVID infections, and the Biden administration has been criticized for a delayed response that's left Americans across the country waiting in hours-long lines and as long as a week for results to know if they have the virus (pictured: People wait in a long line to get a COVID-19 test, Monday, Jan. 3, 2022, in North Miami, Florida)
Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin told reporters yesterday, 'Cutting child poverty in the United States in half is a major accomplishment, and I hope we don’t abandon it.'
Republicans, however, have traditionally been opposed to further pandemic stimulus packages. Every GOP member of Congress voted against the American Rescue Plan last March.
With such steep opposition in the past, it's unclear if Cardin and Wicker's reported plan could move through Congress and to Biden's desk before the fast-spreading Omicron variant wreaks havoc across the month of January, as health experts warn.
A source confirmed to DailyMail.com that early talks were in progress.
Meanwhile some lawmakers are focused on pushing for more funds in pandemic health measures.
Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Patrick Leahy has been looking into 'potentially the need for additional resources for vaccines, therapeutics, testing and other needs,' an aide told the Post.
House Democrats are reportedly looking into the possibility of adding pandemic aid measures into a government funding bill. The current stopgap legislation is keeping the federal government open until February 18, at which point lawmakers will be expected to have reached an agreement on another short-term package.
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