Pelosi Calls for No ‘Poison Pills’ in Coronavirus Relief Package

Tuesday on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) discussed the coronavirus relief package as Congress weighs completion of the legislation.

After blocking the bill’s passage over the weekend to include what Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) called a “wish list” for the Democrats, Pelosi told CNBC’s Jim Cramer that Republicans better not include what they know to be “poison pills” in the newest bill.

“I’m optimistic,” Pelosi stated. “I think everybody knows the overarching view is we have to get this done, A. B, I have three options. We can come to a conclusion and it sticks, not that they’re with you on that and they change it. They can come to an agreement, you know, where there is all compromise, A. B, and then we have unanimous consent, and this can move quickly. If we don’t have unanimous consent, my two options with my members is to call them back to vote to amend this bill or to pass our own bill and then go to conference with that.”

She continued, “The easiest way to do it is for us to put aside some of our concerns for another day and get this done. But you can support a bill because — if it doesn’t do enough that you want to do, but that’s what you can get — but if it has poison pills in it, and they know certain things are poison pills, then they don’t want unanimous consent. They just want an ideological statement.”

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