Republicans in the US Senate are close to reaching an agreement with the White House on a new bundle of legislation to deal with the fallout from the coronavirus epidemic, NBC News reports.
The package deal will cost around $1 trillion, and will include $105 billion for schools, $16 billion for virus testing, and grants to individual citizens.
Responding to news of the proposal (although the details have not yet been published), House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif) said: "What we have seen so far falls very short of the challenge that we face in order to defeat the virus, and in order to open our schools and open our economy."
Echoing her sentiments, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said, "The Republican legislative response to COVID is un-unified, unserious, unsatisfactory. The Republican disarray and dithering has seriously, potentially deadly consequences for tens of millions of Americans."