A new deadline of midnight Sunday for a government shutdown served as a backstop for the tortuous negotiations, which were being conducted in secret largely among the top four leaders in Congress. “We need to conclude our talks, draft legislation, and land this plane,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. The language would block the Biden administration from restarting them. Even Toomey said this week that his provision “could be seen as redundant," but neither he nor his Democratic adversaries were backing down from the fight, though compromise language was being shuttled back and forth. At issue are Fed emergency programs, launched amid the pandemic this spring, that provided loans to small and mid-size businesses and bought state and local government bonds.

Source: Daily Sun December 19, 2020 23:37 UTC