No deal: Senate departs until September without coronavirus relief package

U.S. senators have packed their bags and headed to their home states until September, leaving the nation's capital without a concrete plan for the next coronavirus relief package.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) kept his chamber in session this week, hoping a deal would come to fruition some time this week, though some Senators doubted there was much hope for that plan and left town last week with their colleagues from the House. The lower chamber isn't expected back in Washington until Sept. 14. The Senate adjourned Thursday and will return Sept. 8.

McConnell said that if the bill negotiators -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin -- come to an agreement sometime soon, the Senate will be given at least 24 hours notice to return for a vote. He added that he hopes his chamber will be able to "act sometime soon," though he alleged Democrats are "barely even pretending to negotiate" at the moment. 

The four negotiators have not met face-to-face since last Friday, when they emerged from a meeting still roughly $2.5 trillion apart on the cost of the bill.  

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) does not believe there will be much movement on a deal until after the August recess.  On Tuesday, Grassley told reporters, "If it doesn't happen in the next 48 hours, I think this is all you're going to see until Congress gets back into session after Labor Day."

Pelosi has repeatedly disparaged her Republican colleagues, accusing them of having values systems too different than her own caucus to make a deal that is in the best interest of the  American people, saying to one reporter last week, "Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gave a damn. That isn't the case." 

White House representatives, including economic adviser Larry Kudlow, are adamant that the Republicans will not cave to the $2 trillion commitment request from the Democratic leadership. "The Speaker wants a $2 trillion commitment from us. We're not going to give it. There are too many things, too many asks on their side that don't fit, don't have anything to do with COVID, for that matter," said Kudlow.

During briefings over the past two weeks, White House Press Secretary has repeatedly called the tenets of the Democrats' proposal, "fundamentally unserious." 

Last weekend, the president signed a series of memoranda and one executive order that alleviate some of the immediate challenges facing the American people as Congress continues to deadlock on this deal. However, politicians on both sides of the aisle, facing tough fall elections, are feeling the heat to deliver for their constituents. 

Maine GOP Sen. Susan Collins, who is facing a challenging reelection bid against Speaker of the Maine House of Representatives Sara Gideon, suggested the Senate reconvene next week to force members into focusing on the coronavirus relief legislation.

Rep. Max Rose, a first-term New York Democrat from a district won by the president in 2016, shared his frustration, saying, "I'm pissed. I'm angry ... At this point, it's a middle finger to the American people."