Washington, DC…. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today issued the following joint statement on the importance of bipartisan coronavirus relief negotiations.

“The American people are currently living through the worst stretch of the pandemic. The United States is averaging over one million new cases a week, 20 percent of all patients now hospitalized in the United States have COVID-19 and the national death toll stands at a very sad 270,000 American souls. Many family budgets and small businesses are at their breaking point.

“Families all across the country are experiencing the unthinkable, unbearable losses of their loved ones and many are falling into financial ruin because of the economic fallout of the pandemic. Economists are warning the US economy will fall into double-dip recession without additional federal relief from Congress.

“While we made a new offer to Leader McConnell and Leader McCarthy on Monday, in the spirit of compromise we believe the bipartisan framework introduced by Senators yesterday should be used as the basis for immediate bipartisan, bicameral negotiations. Of course, we and others will offer improvements, but the need to act is immediate and we believe that with good-faith negotiations we could come to an agreement. With the imminent availability of the vaccine, it is important for there to be additional funding for distribution to take the vaccine to vaccination. This distribution effort will be led by the states further increasing the need for funding for state and local governments.

“In light of the urgency of meeting the needs of the American people and the hope that the vaccine presents, it’s time for Leader McConnell to sit down with Democrats to finally begin a true, bipartisan effort to meet the needs of the country.”