Pelosi, Meadows talk, but Democrats and White House still locked on another COVID spending bill

Negotiations between House Democrats and the White House on another round of coronavirus-relief money remain deadlocked, despite a roughly 25-minute phone call Thursday between House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. 

The sides are largely stuck on the cost of the new spending package, to help Americans through the recession created by the coronavirus shutdown.

The House in May passed a $3.4 trillion measure that Republicans have derided as a “liberal wish list” with no chance of passage in the GOP-controlled Senate. They have instead proposed a deal closer to $1 trillion. 

“The administration’s continued failure to acknowledge the funding levels that experts, scientists and the American people know is needed leaves our nation at a tragic impasse,” Pelosi said Thursday after the call. 

The California Democrat has also proposed a compromise amount of $2.2 trillion.

Meadows has dismissed the compromise offer as “partisan posturing” and says Democrats want the $2.2 to $2.4 trillion “without any guardrails or parameters,” according to Roll Call.