The Democratic majority in the House of Representatives on Friday pushed through a $3-trillion COVID-19 economic relief bill, which the GOP-led Senate has refused to take up and the White House has threatened to veto.
The Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions (HEROES) Act, H.R. 6800, passed the House in a 208-199 vote. It was an essentially party-line split. Only one Republican, Rep. Peter King (N.Y.) broke ranks to support the majority-authored bill, while almost every House Democrat supported it. There were 23 non-voters, from both parties, and five vacant seats.
The House’s bill would provide some protections for federal contractors, including a sort of amnesty for missing deliverables due to the pandemic. According to the bill, the federal government could not put missed deliverables in a past performance database to use against contractors in future bid competitions, so long as the missed deliverables are related to precautions taken to avoid spreading the viral disease.
The legislation also would make clear that any reimbursements contractors seek from the federal government under Section 3610 of the CARES Act, the COVID-19 stimulus bill signed into law in March, can cover not only employee and subcontractor salaries, but also costs associated with keeping those employees and subcontractors “in a ready state.” Section 3610 lets contractors recoup some of the unforeseen costs of responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a “dear colleagues” letter to House Democrats, posted online over the weekend, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said the HEROES Act is a marker for future negotiations with Senate Republicans.
The Senate GOP, meanwhile, wants what Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) calls “narrowly targeted” COVID-19 relief bills. McConnell wants the first of these to address liability protections for businesses that reopen before the eradication of the disease.
