House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is scheduled to meet with Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin today. They spent an hour working through details yesterday without coming to an agreement.
The House passed a relief package last week but it is largely seen as a cover for when Democrats return home to campaign, that is something the Chairman of the House Ag Committee seems to agree with. The bill included several ag measures, but Collin Peterson voted against it, noting the measure was going nowhere and simply burning time.
American Farm Bureau’s Andrew Walmsley is optimistic but says that the pressure is building:
“I think there’s a desire by both sides to make sure those that have fallen on particularly hard times have a lifeline. It’s just a question of what that ends up looking like... It’s hot negotiations in Washington, so anything’s possible, but as the time drags on, days drag on, the desire to get a deal, I think, only grows more rampant.”
Pelosi and Mnuchin are working to close a $700 billion gap.
The financial markets were stronger on the close yesterday on the news President Trump was leaving the hospital, but as attention turned to the relief bill, all three major financial indexes turned lower last night.