Pelosi urges Republicans to resume Covid-19 relief package talks

Washington, Nov 14 : US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has called on Republican lawmakers to resume negotiations on a new Covid-19 relief package as the number of confirmed cases was surging across the country.
“Our focus in the Congress, now in this lame duck, continues to be on Covid-19 relief. This is a red alert,” Xinhua news agency quoted Pelosi as saying at a press briefing on Friday.
“(Senate Democratic Leader Chuck) Schumer and I discussed yesterday this is an emergency of the highest magnitude, and yet our Republican colleagues want to focus elsewhere instead of recognizing this as a health emergency which science is giving us a path to crush.
“We must save lives and livelihoods, and yet Republicans in Congress continue their tactics of delay, distort, and deny, which has led to deaths.
“I hope it would be an incentive for people to follow science all of the way to the vaccine, and in that score in our Covid-19 bill, we do have sufficient fund — a great deal of funding for the vaccine,”the Speaker added.
Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin have been negotiating a new relief package for months, but have failed to reach an agreement.