Pelosi Reacts to Virus Stimulus Deal, Declines to Say When House Will Vote

Speaker of the House Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) speaks to members of the media at the Capitol in Washington on March 13, 2020. Alex Wong/Getty Images

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said staffers and representatives are reviewing the stimulus deal reached in the Senate overnight Tuesday while declining to commit to a vote in the House on Wednesday.

“We have our staff and our chairman reviewing the bill. I’m optimistic but we'll see,” Pelosi told reporters at the U.S. Capitol in Washington.

Asked if the House could vote as early as today, Pelosi said: “No, we haven’t seen the bill yet. The Senate will vote first.”

“We'll see the bill and see when the Senate votes,” she added. “So there’s no decision about timing until we see the bill.”

The House went into session at 10 a.m. for a brief session before adjourning in less than two minutes. There’s nothing on the schedule until 11 a.m. Thursday.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin (C) leaves the offices of Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) as negotiations continued into the night on a $2 trillion economic stimulus in response to the coronavirus pandemic at the U.S. Capitol on March 24, 2020. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), center, leaves a meeting in Washington on March 24, 2020. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

House Democrats plan to hold several conference calls throughout the day on the deal the Senate reached and plans for voting on the agreement, C-Span’s Craig Caplan reported.

The White House and leaders in the Senate reached a deal on a $2 trillion relief package overnight. The package includes direct payments of up to $3,000 to most American families as well as creating a $367 billion program for small business loans.

“This is a wartime level of investment into our nation,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said on the Senate floor after the two sides had reached a deal. “The men and women of the greatest country on Earth are going to defeat this coronavirus and reclaim our future.”

Senators said they plan to vote on the package on Wednesday. The Senate was slated to reconvene at 12 p.m.