(CNN) Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Friday that Democrats have had no contact with Senate Republicans or the Trump administration about stimulus negotiations, just days before the GOP is planning to release their draft bill. "We have not heard a peep from (Senate Majority Leader Mitch) McConnell or the Republicans or the administration on any proposal, even though we've been asking for weeks and weeks and weeks," Schumer said on a conference call with public workers and advocates pushing for significant state and local funding -- a flashpoint of the looming negotiations. Schumer decried McConnell's decision to draft the proposal entirely within his own conference, noting that Democratic support will be necessary for any final package to pass the Senate. "McConnell knows from the previous bills that passed in the Senate he's got to work across the aisle," Schumer said. Citing the past negotiations that produced nearly $3 trillion in emergency federal funding to try and arrest the dual economic and public health crises created by coronavirus, Schumer said that when McConnell has sought to negotiate among only Republicans, "it fails."

Source: CNN July 17, 2020 18:22 UTC