Pelosi: Governors’ impatience ‘will help us get an even bigger number’ for state coronavirus funding

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Sunday that the impatience of state governors will help Democrats negotiate for more funding for state and local governments in the next coronavirus relief package.

Funding for state governments has become a flashpoint in the talks about the next coronavirus funding bill and governors have expressed growing frustration at a lack of federal support while they face mounting costs and plummeting revenue amid the coronavirus pandemic. 

“The governors are impatient. I’m a big fan of Governor Cuomo. My own governor, Gavin Newsom, has been spectacular, my mayor, Mayor Breed. The state and local have done their jobs magnificently,” Pelosi said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “They should be impatient. Their impatience will help us get an even bigger number.”

“The intervention came, we made the most of it,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says about the latest relief bill and why it doesn’t include more help for state and local governments. “Judge it for what it does. Don’t criticize it for what it doesn’t.” #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/icolqTdymM

— State of the Union (@CNNSotu) April 26, 2020

Pelosi said after the $2.2 trillion CARES Act passed at the end of March, she and other Democrats had moved to work on CARES 2 before the “intervention” to refund the Paycheck Protection Program that ran out of money earlier this month.

In this deal, Democrats received an additional $75 billion for hospitals and health centers and $25 billion to increase coronavirus testing both through the state and federal governments.

“The intervention came, we made the most of it,” she said. “As I say to members: Judge it for what it does. Don’t criticize it for what it doesn’t.”

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) criticized lawmakers in a press briefing last week, saying they should have insisted state and local governments received funding in the new stimulus bill.

The speaker responded: “Just calm down. We will have state and local, and we will have it in a very significant way.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell took some bipartisan heat last week after suggesting that states declare bankruptcy in the midst of the pandemic.