Hoyer Discusses Need for an Agreement on COVID Relief Legislation on NPR's All Things Considered
"[Negotiations for COVID-19 legislation being] 'totally stalled' would imply that neither side wants to get together and make a deal. Both sides, in my opinion - I believe that we need to act, I know that we do, I know that we want to get to a place where we could reach [an] agreement on so many of these items: states, testing, direct payments to families and people, medical, elections money - we have an election coming up, education, we want to get the schools opened up, etc., etc."
"Secretary Mnuchin and Speaker Pelosi on four different occasions reached a deal. We should have been able to do that this time. There's one difference: Mr. Meadows is in the room, he’s the President’s Chief of Staff and he used to serve in the House of Representatives. I don't know why we haven’t been able to reach an agreement [but] I do know we're willing to compromise; that's the nature of business."
"I think the President, of course, is ultimately responsible, and the President ought to direct Mr. Meadows to go back to the table, reach a deal in-between. Obviously, have to take care of unemployment, you need to take care of nutritional [assistance], you need to take care of testing and evaluation, you need to take care of health, and you need to take care of direct payments. So, I don’t think we’re being unreasonable in saying you’ve got to have some investment in these objectives."