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House Democrats prepare $2.4T stimulus plan

House Democrats are putting together another coronavirus stimulus plan, which would cost about $2.4 trillion. The chamber could vote on the legislation, which would include unemployment benefits, direct payments, small business loans and airline aid, as soon as next week. Yahoo Finance’s Jessica Smith joins The Final Round panel to discuss.

Video Transcript

SEANA SMITH: First, we want to check in on the latest down in DC because we also know investors are very closely watching the stimulus negotiations. House Democrats are looking at a scaled-back proposal. Looks like at this point Jess Smith has the latest on those efforts for us. Jess?

JESSICA SMITH: Yeah, Seana, stimulus talks are back in the spotlight in Washington after earlier this week, Treasury Secretary Stephen Mnuchin said that he was going to restart talks with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. As far as we know, they haven't had a direct conversation about stimulus yet, but it looks like they are going to start talking again.

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Meanwhile, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has reportedly told her committee chairmen to come up with a scaled-back piece of stimulus legislation. We expect that scaled-back legislation to have a $2.2 to $2.4 trillion price tag, somewhere in that range. We do expect it to include enhanced unemployment benefits, state and local funding, help for small businesses, some of those key provisions from the Heroes Act. And Politico reports it will also include help for airlines and restaurants.

Now, there is still a really, really big gap between where Republicans and Democrats are. Democrats have proposed a $2 trillion package before, and Republicans have rejected that idea. But Speaker Pelosi has been under a lot of pressure from her-- from members of her own party, vulnerable Democrats, moderate Democrats who have wanted to vote on some sort of stimulus package before the election. So we could see a vote on this bill as early as next week, but we'll still be waiting to hear more details about what exactly it's going to look like.