McConnell: GOP virus aid for schools, others out next week

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday he'll begin to roll out details of the new COVID-19 relief package to senators next week and suggested it will include new funding for school reopenings, some unemployment benefits and money for health care providers.

Expected to hit $1 trillion, the emerging Republican package shows shifting priorities as the pandemic crisis deepens nationwide. Once reluctant to approve more aid, Republicans and the White House now say more is needed.

In recent days, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has been reaching out to GOP senators ahead of negotiations with Democrats, who already approved a $3 trillion House bill.

McConnell, during a visit to a hospital in his home state of Kentucky, said the theme of the upcoming GOP bill will be children and schools, jobs and unemployment, and health care.

Congress is returning Monday for two weeks to consider fresh coronavirus relief as the Trump administration has been unable to halt the virus' deepening spread across the country. Lawmakers typically splintered by party divisions are finding some agreement on a more deliberate federal strategy and funding.

While McConnell wanted to hit “pause” after the last big relief package in May, he now hopes to swiftly approve the new one in hopes of staunching the pandemic crisis and economic fallout.

Speaking at the White House, President Donald Trump said, “We have to get everything open."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi warned that, without a comprehensive federal strategy for the country, the devastating virus and its economic toll will only persist.

“We can open our economy, we can open our schools, if we test, trace, treat, separate, mask, hygiene and the rest, but we have to make a national decision to do it,”...