House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Sunday that the fifth COVID-19 relief bill will include “significant” funding for state and local governments, as demand soars across the nation amid the pandemic.
In an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Pelosi pushed back against criticism from governors nationwide, including New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo who said last week that state funding and federal support should have been granted in previous legislation.
“Just calm down,” Pelosi told CNN’s Jake Tapper when asked whether House Democrats made a tactical error in supporting the latest relief package. “We will have state and local and we will have it in a very significant way.”
Responding to Cuomo’s remarks that he would have “insisted” on including pandemic funds for states in the latest CCP virus relief package, Pelosi said that it’s “no use going on to what might have been.”
Pelosi suggested that the “impatience” of state governors for federal aid will assist Democrats in negotiating for more funding in the forthcoming CCP virus relief package.
"The governors are impatient. I'm a big fan of Governor Cuomo. My own governor, Gavin Newsom, has been spectacular, my mayor, Mayor Breed. The state and local have done their jobs magnificently,” she said. "They should be impatient. Their impatience will help us get an even bigger number."
Amid relief talks, funding for state and local governments has become a point of contention between Republicans and Democrats.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told Fox News on Sunday that “we’ll consider” additional funding, adding that, “This is a war, we’ll win this war—if we need to spend more money we will and we’ll only do it with bipartisan support.”
“Now we have to go further to help state and local” governments, she said. “The president himself has said, he as tweeted out, that was last night, that he is ready to do state and local” in the fifth relief bill.
The Democrat agenda for state funding has already seen some Republican pushback, with Senate Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) telling a conservative talk radio host on Wednesday that federal aid to states could amount to bailing out cash-strapped states controlled by Democratic administrations.
She also hinted that the fifth COVID-19 relief bill will be used to support mail-in and absentee voting efforts.
“You have appropriators making sure government is funded,” he said. “You could bring oversight back to look at the WHO and this current administration; the WHO is acting not like the World Health organization, but more like the Wuhan Health Organization.”