Moderates Pare Back Stimulus Plan in Hopes of Breaking Stalemate

WASHINGTON — Lawmakers crept toward a possible consensus on Monday on a stimulus deal to address the toll of the pandemic, as a bipartisan group of centrist members of Congress pared back their compromise plan to omit the most contentious sticking points.

The moderate lawmakers proposed a $748 billion package to fund an array of programs that have generated agreement in the stimulus talks — including the revival of federal unemployment payments and a popular small-business loan program — as well as money for vaccine distribution, rental assistance and food aid, and resources for schools and other institutions struggling to stay afloat because of the pandemic.

Notably absent were the two most hotly contested items in the negotiations — $160 billion to bolster state and local governments, and limits on workers’ ability to sue companies that opened during the pandemic — which the group included in a separate bill.

The group’s bifurcated plan amounted to an effort to generate a deal before the holidays that all sides could embrace after months of stalled negotiations. But it also underscored how, with divisions remaining on liability protections for businesses, nonprofits, schools and hospitals and on an allocation of billions of dollars to state and local governments, lawmakers may ultimately jettison both ideas.

Democrats have been resistant to a liability shield, which they say could harm worker protections, and Republicans have been staunchly opposed to what many of them have derided as a “blue-state bailout” for state and local governments facing fiscal crises.

There is no guarantee that leaders in either party will embrace the proposals, with many Democrats still pressing for a more generous package that includes direct payments to struggling Americans, and with many Republicans continuing to oppose another costly round of federal aid.

“We haven’t seen anybody else step forward,” said Senator Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska, who urged leadership to use the bills in their final days of talks. “We’ve got your gift. Take it.”

With government funding set to lapse on Friday, any additional pandemic relief is expected to be wrapped into a catchall spending package to keep the government open for the remainder of the fiscal year. With lawmakers nearing an agreement on that legislation, there is little time left to haggle over a stimulus plan.

Millions of Americans could lose jobless benefits when two federal programs that expand and extend the unemployment insurance system expire soon after Christmas. A number of other pandemic relief programs are set to lapse at the end of the year.

The bipartisan proposal would not only extend those unemployment programs for 16 weeks, but it would revive a lapsed supplemental benefit at about $300 a week — half of the original amount — and extend student loan forbearance and eviction moratoriums.

Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, had previously proposed discarding the liability protections, a top priority of his, and the state and local aid, a suggestion Democrats initially panned. But after the moderates proposed the two bills on Monday at a news conference on Capitol Hill, Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Senate Democrat, and at least one other Democrat signaled a willingness to abandon both issues in the absence of an agreement.

“It’s a really complicated issue, and trying to reach a full resolution by Friday is going to be very difficult,” said Senator Angus King, independent of Maine and one of multiple lawmakers who negotiated over the liability language. “We’re going to keep working on it, but it may be that it has to hold over into January.”

It remained unclear whether the moderates’ bipartisan compromise, first outlined shortly after Thanksgiving, would be part of any final deal. Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California spoke with Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, on Monday evening for roughly 20 minutes and continued to push for the inclusion of funds for state and local governments.

Members of the centrist group — including Senators Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, and Mark Warner, Democrat of Virginia, as well as Representatives Josh Gottheimer, Democrat of New Jersey, and Tom Reed, Republican of New York — have huddled for days to hammer out the details. The bipartisan House coalition that Mr. Gottheimer and Mr. Reed led, known as the Problem Solvers Caucus, is continuing work to merge the two bills into one.

The $748 billion agreement would provide $300 billion for small businesses, restaurants and live-performance venues, as well as $13 billion for emergency food assistance, $82 billion for education, $45 billion for airlines, airports, Amtrak and public transit and $16 billion for testing, tracing and vaccine development and distribution, according to a summary.

Standing at the news conference behind the two stacks of legislation, lawmakers from both parties emphasized that the compromise legislation would not include every priority and that additional legislation could move under the incoming Biden administration.

“These bills are comprehensive, but they don’t cover everything everyone would want,” Ms. Collins said. “Undoubtedly, depending on the course of this pandemic, we may have to do more, but surely we can come together and provide this relief before we break for the Christmas holiday.”

But Senator Bernie Sanders, independent of Vermont, has warned Democratic leaders that he would oppose any agreement that did not include direct payments to Americans of $1,200 per adult and $500 per child, a provision that was not expected to be included in either of the bipartisan plans. Senator Josh Hawley, Republican of Missouri, has also lobbied for the inclusion of the direct payments.

“If the United States government wants the American people to have faith in their government in this time of emergency, it has got to respond,” Mr. Sanders said in a phone interview. “My immediate demand is two things: You’ve got have strong unemployment benefits, and we’ve got to have the $1,200, plus $500. That’s what has to be in any proposal that is passed.”

Mr. Sanders expressed frustration that Democrats appeared poised to accept less than $1 trillion in pandemic relief after the House approved a $3.4 trillion measure in May and after Mr. Mnuchin floated a $1.8 trillion package to Ms. Pelosi just before the election.

“That’s not a compromise, that’s a collapse, and that is not something that the American people — certainly working families — want to see,” Mr. Sanders said. “In my view, Congress just simply cannot go home for the Christmas holidays and turn its back on the suffering of tens of millions of families in this country.”

Jim Tankersley contributed reporting.