by Nicholas Ballasy
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that she won’t agree to “standalone” bills for an airline bailout, direct payments or more stimulus funding for small businesses without an agreement on a “bigger” stimulus bill.
“The only point about negotiations is there ain’t going to be no standalone bill unless there’s a bigger bill and it could be part of that or it could be in addition to that,” said Pelosi, the leader of the Democrat-controlled House, who is negotiating with the White House on another coronavirus stimulus package.
Pelosi referred to Trump’s tweets about ending stimulus negotiations but signaling he would support legislation that sends out more stimulus checks, helps the airlines and provides more federal small business aid.
The California lawmaker said many families are “on the verge of eviction” while the president zeroes in on only three areas.
“No, it’s not going to happen,” she said.
Pelosi said legislating is “a foreign language to the White House in many respects” but more has to be done in Congress on economic stimulus.
“Nothing is agreed to until everything is agreed to – that’s the way it always is,” she said. “I’m hopeful because it has to be done. If the president wants to wait until he wins the election, well that might be an eternity.”
Pelosi previewed a news conference expected to take place on Friday, telling reporters it will be focused on the 25th Amendment, which deals with presidential disability and succession.
“We’re going to be talking about the 25th Amendment,” she said.
During the press conference, Pelosi said Trump should inform the public about his last negative test for COVID-19.
“I think that the public needs to know the health condition of the president,” Pelosi said. “Before he got the virus and admitted to it, when was his last negative test?”
Pelosi said knowing when the president’s last negative test was will help to “make a judgement about the actions that were taken after that.”
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Photo “Nancy Pelosi” by The Washington Post.
