Senate Democrats seek aid for Black Americans in virus bill

WASHINGTON (AP) — As Senate Republicans prepare to roll out their next COVID-19 aid bill, the top Democrat said Thursday that he wants to shift $350 billion from an untapped Treasury Department virus relief program to help Black Americans and other people of color during the pandemic and beyond.

Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York said moving some of the $500 billion previously approved for Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin would make immediate and long-term changes to address systemic racism.

“Long before the pandemic, long before this recession, long before this year’s protests, structural inequalities have persisted in health care and housing, the economy and education," Schumer said in a statement. “COVID-19 has only magnified these injustices.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is poised to release the GOP's $1 trillion package as soon as next week. That plan is a counteroffer to the sweeping $3 trillion proposal that House Democrats approved in May, as the outbreak spreads and the economic fallout deepens.

It's been months since McConnell hit “pause” on new spending, as he puts it, and Republicans now face a potentially more dire situation. They had hoped the pandemic would ease and the economy would recover. Instead, coronavirus cases are spiking, states are resuming shutdowns and parents are wondering if it's safe to send children back to school.

“There were some that hoped this would go away sooner than it has,” McConnell said Wednesday during a hospital visit in Kentucky, where he urged people to wear masks and social distance.

"The straight talk here that everyone needs to understand: This is not going away," McConnell said.

This would be the fifth virus rescue bill since spring. Such an unprecedented federal intervention has occurred as Congress races to provide a...