Your guide to the latest Hill developments, news narratives, and media headlines from Hogan Lovells Government Relations and Public Affairs practice.

In Washington:

• The House passed a one-week funding extension (HR 8900) to give lawmakers more time to finalize a fiscal 2021 spending package and coronavirus relief. The vote was 343-67. The measure (HR 8900) now goes to the Senate. Current stopgap funding (PL 116-59) expires Friday at midnight.

• A last-minute offer from the White House has sent the stimulus talks into disorder. Tuesday night, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin offered up a $916 billion proposal to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) in the administration’s first attempt to get involved in the negotiations since the elections.
  • The proposal would offer a $600 one-time stimulus checks but eliminates the $300 enhanced unemployment that beneficiaries would get every week. Later in a tweet, Mnuchin claims he has “reviewed” the proposal with the president, Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), and House Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA). The deal would include state liability and state and local funding even though McConnell had already offered to drop those provisions.
  • House Speaker Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said in a joint statement that cutting the unemployment insurance proposal currently being negotiated is “unacceptable” for them. The Democratic leaders said the “President’s proposal must not be allowed to obstruct the bipartisan Congressional talks that are underway,” adding that the $908 billion negotiations are the “best hope for a bipartisan solution.”

• Wednesday morning, the $908 billion negotiators unveiled a summary of their package which includes: $300 weekly unemployment benefit over the next four months; $300 billion for additional PPP loans while tapping the $138 billion left over after the program ended in July; $25 billion in rental assistance to states and local governments and an extension on the eviction moratorium through January; and funding for other noncontroversial measures. The bipartisan group has yet to release the final legislative text. The negotiators are still working out the aid for states and localities and say they have an agreement in principle on a six-month liability shield that would give states time to develop their own protections.

• Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is still pushing his “skinny” bill. He prodded Democrats tweeting that they had “rejected two more GOP aid proposals” while again calling for negotiators to abandon their current efforts to negotiate the “sticking points” and instead “pass everything we agree on.”

• Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar said Wednesday that he met with President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team and that he wants to ensure a smooth and professional transition process. Asked on CNN whether he would meet with Biden’s nominee to lead HHS, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra (D), Azar said he would be open to such a meeting. Azar appears to be the first Trump administration Cabinet official to speak publicly about contact with the Biden transition team amid President Trump’s refusal to accept the election results.

• Becerra, meanwhile, is running into early opposition from Senate Republicans. GOP lawmakers are voicing concerns about Becerra’s lack of professional experience in the health care sector and his fierce resistance to Trump administration policies as California’s Attorney General. Sen. Mike Braun (R-IN), a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, which has jurisdiction over Becerra’s nomination, raised concerns about his backing for “Medicare for All” and support for Planned Parenthood.
• HHS Secretary Azar said Wednesday that the FDA is reviewing reports by British medical regulators about potential allergic reactions tied to the Covid-19 vaccine from Pfizer/BioNTech. Operation Warp Speed’s chief adviser, Moncef Slaoui, told reporters that, as in Britain, it’s likely that in the U.S., “subjects with known severe allergic reactions should not take the vaccine until we understand exactly what happened here.

In the News:

• British regulators warned that people with “significant” histories of allergic reactions shouldn’t take Pfizer and BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine. The warning came after two people reported adverse reactions on Tuesday, Reuters noted. A National Health Service spokesperson said both individuals “are recovering well.” The UK began its mass vaccination campaign on Tuesday, about a week after it became the first country to approve the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccines.
• On Wednesday, Canada’s government authorized the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine, becoming the third country to do so after the United Kingdom and Bahrain. Pfizer and BioNTech said they would supply Canada with a minimum of 20 million doses, and up to 76 million, through 2021.BioNTech said it is ready to ship the vaccines to Canada “as soon as we receive the green light from the regulatory authority to start with the distribution."
• German Chancellor Angela Merkel proposed tougher restrictions in her country on Wednesday following Germany’s largest single-day increase of coronavirus deaths yet. The German national disease control center reported 590 deaths on Wednesday, over 100 deaths more than the previous record set last week. Merkel announced last week that Germany would be extending its national lockdown, in place since Nov. 2, into 2021. “If we have too many contacts before Christmas and then it’s our last Christmas with our grandparents, then we will have been negligent,” said Merkel.

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