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House will not hold votes until Sept. 14 unless deal is reached on coronavirus stimulus

10 August 2020
 Dan Ackermann

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.0 announced Monday that the House will not hold any floor votes until Sept. 14, though members will remain on 24-hour notice to return to Washington in case a deal on coronavirus stimulus is reached.

Why it matters: Democrats and the Trump administration remain deadlocked and have not met since negotiations broke down without a deal on Friday.

  • In the meantime, President Trump has signed four executive actions to provide economic relief, which House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer have slammed as "weak" and "absurdly unconstitutional."
  • The Senate remains in session this week but does not have any floor votes scheduled.

What they're saying: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who has not been involved in the negotiations between the White House and Democrats, criticized Pelosi for holding up a deal by demanding funding for state and local budgets that have been decimated by the pandemic.

  • "Republicans want to send cash right now for schools, testing, and unemployment benefits, and argue over state bailouts later," McConnell said on the Senate floor Monday, adding that the GOP has done "everything possible" to reach a stimulus deal.

Hoyer said in a statement: “Unfortunately, while it has been nearly three months since the House passed the Heroes Act to provide assistance to families, increase testing and tracing, and help state and local governments keep teachers, first responders, and other essential workers on the job, Republicans have refused to act."

What to watch: Congress must also pass a deal on government funding before it expires on Sept. 30. "We cannot risk a government shutdown in the middle of a pandemic and an economic crisis," Hoyer said.

Go deeper: Pelosi, Schumer say July jobs report underscores need for next coronavirus stimulus

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly 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.