President Donald Trump plans to come to Capitol Hill on Tuesday to have lunch with Republicans, two GOP sources told NBC News, as the government's response to the coronavirus pandemic enters a new phase.
Vice President Mike Pence was scheduled to meet with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin earlier Tuesday morning.
The president's lunch meeting, reportedly scheduled for around 12 p.m. ET, comes as Republicans and Democrats trade barbs over what provisions should be included in additional legislation to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic.
McCarthy told CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Tuesday that GOP leaders are "looking at ways of where we can work together to move forward on what we do need" in a legislative package. That search would start with liability protections for doctors and businesses, he said.
"Liability protections would be the No. 1 thing I would look at," McCarthy said. "No bill will pass without it."
Republicans have already written off a $3 trillion bill that passed the Democrat-led House on Friday as a nonstarter. That bill would distribute nearly $1 trillion in funding for state and local governments, many of which have seen their economies devastated amid the pandemic. It would also provide a second round of $1,200 direct payments to individuals, with up to $6,000 per household.
Mnuchin and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on Tuesday morning began testifying remotely before the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee about the CARES Act, which Trump signed into law in late March.