Mnuchin, Pelosi to meet, raising hopes of end to US aid deadlock

WASHINGTON: US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he was hopeful that a deal on additional aid for the US economy could be reached, ahead of a meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi aimed at breaking weeks of deadlock in Congress.

President Donald Trump's administration and Democratic leaders have been trying to agree on a follow-up to the $2.2 trillion CARES Act passed as the coronavirus pandemic intensified in March, after key provisions of the law that have been credited with bolstering the economy expired.

Mnuchin and Pelosi were to meet in the speaker's office on Wednesday afternoon, a source familiar with the matter told AFP, with the Democrats controlling the House of Representatives aiming to bring their latest aid proposal to the floor of the chamber later in the day.

After weeks of faltering negotiations, progress was made this week after Mnuchin and Pelosi resumed talks on Monday and Tuesday and vowed to continue speaking.

In an interview with CNBC on Wednesday morning, Mnuchin said he was "hopeful" over the talks' prospects, and that "We're going to give it one more serious try to get this done."

"I think there is a reasonable compromise here. It's something that the president very much wants to get done," he said.

Democrats earlier this week unveiled a $2.2 trillion aid proposal, more than $1 trillion less than they had initially wanted to spend.

The move was aimed at satisfying Trump and Republicans, who don't want to spend more than $1 trillion to further aid the economy. The most recent stimulus bill, passed at the end of April, totaled $500 billion.

"In many cases, we do have things that we agree on, and we have things that there are differences, and we're trying to see if both of us can manage a package that gets some of what everybody wants," Mnuchin said.