This window is typically used by successful presidential candidates to plan for the outset of their administration, but several large economic sectors are bracing to be hit by both an increase in coronavirus cases and the arrival of winter weather.
These factors could exacerbate extreme slowdowns in the travel, restaurant and hospitality industries, and further depress an oil industry already roiled by low prices.
Millions of Americans are also at risk of having their power and water shut off with unpaid utility bills coming due, while protections for renters, student borrowers and jobless Americans will expire by the end of the year absent federal action.
The looming economic pressures come amid a breakdown in bipartisan stimulus negotiations on Capitol Hill and an acrimonious turn in talks between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. Pelosi and Mnuchin, who have worked together throughout the year to successfully secure passage of trillions in emergency aid, instead traded barbs in recent days, with Pelosi saying Tuesday the administration had “failed miserably” and Mnuchin attacking Pelosi’s “ALL OR NONE approach” in a letter on Friday.
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