WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Top U.S. congressional leaders are meeting at 4 p.m. (2100 GMT) Tuesday as they seek to finalize a massive government funding bill and end a standoff on coronavirus relief, with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin joining by telephone, Pelosi's office said.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, invited Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, as well as Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and the House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy to the meeting on Capitol Hill.
About 90 minutes before the gathering, McConnell told reporters lawmakers would not leave town this year until they have agreed on a fresh package of coronavirus relief, which he said he hoped could be attached to the government funding measure.
"We're going to stay here until we get a COVID package ... no matter how long it takes," the Republican senator said. He reiterated his view that the best way to get a deal was to drop the most contentious items - liability protections for business, preferred by Republicans, and aid to state and local governments, sought by Democrats.
Pelosi spoke to Mnuchin for over an hour earlier Tuesday and they "discussed the latest" on the government funding talks and coronavirus aid, a Pelosi spokesman said.
Mnuchin will join Pelosi and the other top congressional leaders in the afternoon meeting by telephone, the spokesman, Drew Hammill, wrote on Twitter. He has been a frequent negotiating partner of Pelosi's as they have sought in recent months to reach a consensus on a new package of coronavirus relief.
Leading lawmakers have been hammering out the government spending measure, a $1.4 trillion bill for the fiscal year that began on Oct. 1. A source said Tuesday this task was basically done, but lawmakers from both parties still sought to strike a consensus on coronavirus relief, something they have wrangled over for months.
If the leaders can reach agreement, the coronavirus aid could be attached to the government spending bill, which must be passed by Friday to avoid a federal government shutdown.
Earlier this year, Congress approved $3 trillion in coronavirus aid. A bipartisan group of lawmakers from the House and Senate on Tuesday unveiled a new package of $908 billion in two parts.
One was a $748 billion proposal, including aid to small businesses, the unemployed and vaccine distribution. The other includes the two main sticking points on Capitol Hill that McConnell mentioned: the liability protections for businesses and other organizations, and $160 billion for state and local governments.
President-elect Joe Biden has urged Congress to act quickly on coronavirus aid before he takes office on Jan. 20. Even if it does, his new administration likely will seek another round of aid next year.
Democrats have been pushing hard for aid to state and local governments to insure against laying off more workers, including police, firefighters and emergency medical personnel. Many Republicans oppose this, while demanding liability protections for businesses that are anathema to some Democrats.
(Additional reporting by Richard Cowan and Daphne Psaledakis; Editing by Franklin Paul and Aurora Ellis)