Government shutdown looms over a Congress already deadlocked on COVID stimulus
13 September 2020
We're about two weeks away from a government shutdown, as Congress and the White House remain deadlocked in negotiations over another coronavirus relief bill.
The latest: Negotiations between House and Senate leadership and the White House over a continuing resolution are expected to begin in earnest next week when the House returns from recess. Remember this deadline: Midnight on Oct. 1.
Details: Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi insist there won’t be a shutdown. Leaders on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue appear as far apart as ever on coronavirus relief funding, and a stimulus bill before November looks highly unlikely.
- Both parties are pushing for a “clean” continuing resolution (CR) that would largely maintain current levels of funding for government agencies until some point after the election, Senate Appropriations Chair Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) said last week.
- “There was an early decision among leadership on the Hill and at the White House not to couple coronavirus relief to the CR talks,” a Senate leadership aide told Alayna. “Having that agreement means we’ll likely not see a shutdown.”
Be smart: Election Day may be the saving grace when it comes to averting a shutdown.
- “A lot of people want to get out of town to campaign and address these types of things in the lame-duck sessions,” a GOP congressional source said.
Between the lines: Republicans prefer a CR that runs only through December. That could give them more power to push their own priorities if they lose control of the White House.
- Democrats want the CR to run through January, so that a potential Joe Biden administration could work with them on their priorities.
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.