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Senate Republicans on Monday formally unveiled their roughly $1 trillion stimulus proposal, which includes a $400 cut in enhanced unemployment benefits, and will serve as an opening bid for bipartisan negotiations with Democrats while Congress scrambles to respond to the economic and public health crisis sparked by the coronavirus pandemic. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said in comments on the Senate floor, "The American people need more help," and that the GOP proposal will be called the HEALS Act, an acronym for Health, Economic Assistance, Liability Protection and Schools. (Foran and Mattingly, 7/27)

The latest round of Covid-19 relief could include a dramatic increase in new funding for public health initiatives, according to draft legislation released Monday by Senate Republicans. The proposed bill includes $20 billion for BARDA, the pandemic-response agency, to advance the development of Covid-19 vaccines and therapeutics, as well as $6 billion to coordinate vaccine distribution efforts through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Facher, 7/27)

While Senate Republicans struggled to roll out their own $1 trillion proposal, Pelosi implored the White House and GOP lawmakers to stop the infighting and come to the negotiating table with Democrats. Aid runs out Friday for a $600 weekly jobless benefit that Democrats call a lifeline for out-of-work Americans. Republican want to slash it to $200 a week, saying that the federal bump is too generous on top of state benefits and is discouraging employees from returning to work. “Time is running out,” Pelosi said. (Mascaro, 7/28)

Democrats want a second round of $1,200 stimulus checks, and Republicans agreed Monday as they unveiled their opening offer for another relief package. But stimulus checks 2.0 mean two different things under the approximately $1 trillion Republican bill and Democrats’ $3 trillion bill, underscoring the divides on what each party thinks the country needs — and what it supposedly can afford to pay — as the coronavirus pandemic continues. (Keshner, 7/28)

Business groups across hard-hit industries applauded provisions of the Senate Republicans’ roughly $1 trillion coronavirus relief package, which was rolled out on Monday. The GOP plan would extend Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) eligibility to nonprofit or quasi-governmental tourism marketing organizations, which the travel industry’s lobbying group has been pushing for since these businesses were left out of the COVID-19 aid package Congress passed in March. (Gangitano, 7/27)

Stephanie Kelton, a professor of economics at Stony Brook University, said Monday it would be devastating if the $600 weekly unemployment benefits are cut in the next coronavirus relief plan. “It doesn’t take an economics degree to understand that this life line that was provided, this plus-up that you referred to, the $600 additional per week for unemployed people, has ... helped enormously for tens and millions of Americans,” Kelton said on The Hill.TV’s “Rising.” Kelton said the $600 additional checks for unemployed Americans helped millions of people who would have otherwise fallen into poverty or missed rent and mortgage payments. (7/27)