Coronavirus relief legislation could be reached if President Donald Trump would stay on target "with a single concept of what he wants to do," House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said Tuesday.
"I feel bad for Secretary [Steven] Mnuchin because he sits in the room with [House Speaker Nancy] Pelosi and others and says, 'O.K., we're going to do this, and it has changed on him as he goes back to the White House," Hoyer told MSNBC's "Morning Joe." "Then he has to call Nancy and say, well, 'we can't do that or we can't do this.'"
While both sides agree help is needed for the nation's airlines, stimulus payments, and unemployment insurance, "we cannot leave people behind that are in desperate need," Hoyer said.
For example, people need help with food, Hoyer added.
"We know these food lines with families who never, ever in their lifetime expected to be in a food line, [because they] can't put food on their tables," Hoyer said. "We need to deal with that in a robust way."
Economists are all saying a bill is necessary, Hoyer added, and he thinks Trump is prepared to come up with the money that is needed.
"He needs to come to make sure we can take care of the states, whether they are blue or red states, who hire police, firefighters, who hire sanitation workers and other critical workers in our society to make our society work and make it healthy and be able to defeat this covid virus," Hoyer said.
Pelosi and Mnuchin want to make a deal, and in fact, have come up with four other deals that passed overwhelmingly and in a bipartisan fashion, but now, there is the back and forth with Trump, Hoyer added.
For now, the top priority to Trump and Republicans is getting Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett approved, Hoyer added.
"While thousands of people are dying on a daily basis, the Supreme Court of the United States is the most important objective of the Republicans," Hoyer said. "(Senate Majority Leader Mitch) McConnell has said that. That's a shame."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.