Democratic Congressional Leaders To Discuss COVID-19 With Biden, Harris On Friday - Pelosi

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 20th November, 2020) Presumptive President-Elect Joe Biden will meet with the Democratic leaders in the Senate and the House in Wilmington, Delaware on Friday afternoon to discuss legislation on the COVID-19 crisis and on agreeing on funding for the Federal government, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said earlier in the day.

"Later today [Senate Minority Leader] Chuck Schumer and I will be visiting President-Elect Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris," Pelosi told a Capitol Hill press conference. "We will be discussing the lame duck session [of Congress], the urgency of crushing the virus... easing the pain of the crisis and keeping government open."

Pelosi said she expected full agreement with Biden on trying to advance key pieces of legislation to implement his economic and health crises programs as soon as possible.

"We are pleased that the omnibus bill Moving America Forward legislation that we passed in the summer is so compatible with Joe Biden in creating good-paying jobs in infrastructure, manufacturing, workforce development and clean energy - the list goes on and on," she said.

Pelosi said she and Schumer would also discuss with Biden and Harris passing long-overdue funding for state and local governments to allow them to pay and rehire teachers, nurses, first responders, sanitation workers and other key staff to respond to the pandemic.

"We need to get the food issue into the legislation now," Pelosi said. "Seventeen million children in the United State are now food insecure."

So far Pelosi and Schumer have failed to reach any agreement with Republican congressional leaders Mitch McConnell in the Senate and Kevin McCarthy in the House to push through a new pandemic relief package and related proposals in the lame-duck session of the outgoing Congress.