WASHINGTON, D.C. — Congress hasn’t passed a coronavirus relief package since March, but with the United States recording its highest single-day death toll and the highest number of hospitalizations this week, it seems lawmakers in both parties, including from Ohio, are finally willing to compromise.

What You Need To Know

  • Ohio lawmakers back new relief proposal as year winds down

  • Congress is attempting to avoid a shutdown and pass a relief bill by next week

  • U.S. recorded its highest single-day death toll and highest number of hospitalizations this week

“It doesn’t do everything Republicans want. It doesn’t do everything Democrats want, but it does what the American people need,” Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) said in a floor speech on Dec. 1.

“I’m not looking for perfection here. There are plenty of things I’d do differently,” Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) said in a virtual interview on Dec. 3. “I don’t think this is big enough. This is a really good first step, and I want to see us go with something very close to this.”

Portman and Brown are supporting a new $908 billion proposal that a bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced this week.

It’s less than most Democrats want and more than most Republicans want, but it would restart federal unemployment benefits at $300 per week, bring the Paycheck Protection Program for small businesses back to life, and send $160 billion more to state and local governments, among other things.

Something not on the list? Another round of $1,200 direct payments.

But the proposal did get Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to speak on the phone Thursday, which doesn’t happen often.

Most Ohio U.S. representatives are also calling for a deal, like Republicans Bill Johnson (R, 6th Congressional District) and Anthony Gonzalez (R, 16th Congressional District), who serve on the Problem Solvers Caucus.

“American families are hurting. Businesses are hurting. We should not go home until we get this done,” Johnson said during a Dec. 3 press conference.

“I can almost guarantee you to the person that every single one of them would prefer something to nothing,” Gonzalez said during a Dec. 2 hearing. “And I hope that this body will come to common sense and actually get that done.”

Northeast Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan (D, 13th Congressional District), who has spent months calling for as big a relief package as possible, told me this in a Skype interview on Friday:

“I’ll support it. We need to do more, but we need to do something now and we can’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good here.”

These relief negotiations are happening while Congress is also trying to avoid a government shutdown. A short or long-term funding deal needs to be reached by Dec. 11, and there’s a chance COVID-19 relief could be mixed into it.

The U.S. Senate has adjourned until Monday and the U.S. House has told members to stay in Washington through the weekend.