Trying to bypass the Trump administration altogether, Biden on Thursday met virtually with a collection of Republican and Democratic governors. Specifically, the Trump administration is denying Biden access to detailed briefings on national security and pandemic planning that leaders in both parties say are important for preparing Biden to govern immediately after his Jan. President Donald Trump continues to block a smooth transfer of power to Biden, refusing to allow his administration to cooperate with the transition team. She seemed to suggest these would be her final two years in the leadership post. The meeting came two days after House Democrats nominated Pelosi to be speaker. The president-elect has also promised to work closely with congressional Republicans to execute his governing agenda, but so far, he has focused his congressional outreach on leading Democrats. “There’s no more room for delay, and we need to move forward as quickly as possible.”īiden, Pelosi and Schumer also discussed the agenda for the first 100 days of the Biden presidency, “including taking aggressive action to contain COVID-19, providing resources to small businesses, families, schools, and state and local governments to power our economic recovery, and investing in the middle class,” according to the readout. “They’re in lockstep agreement that there needs to be emergency assistance and aid during the lame-duck session to help families, to help small businesses,” she said. Psaki said Biden, Pelosi and Schumer had already begun working together on COVID-19 relief even before Friday’s meeting. His offer came after a meeting with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. “That didn’t happen, but hopefully it will,” she said.Īlso Friday, McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, proposed that Congress shift $455 billion of unspent small-business lending funds toward a new COVID-19 aid package. Pelosi said talks with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and GOP leadership on Thursday did not produce any consensus on an aid package. Pelosi said before meeting with Biden and Schumer that she’d make clear “the urgency of crushing the virus,” and how to use the lame-duck session to approve COVID-19 relief and legislation that can keep the government funded.īut prospects for new virus aid this year remain uncertain. The sense of urgency in the meeting was echoed in comments earlier Friday by Biden transition aide Jen Psaki, who warned that “there’s no more room for delay.”
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