Coronavirus relief talks are hanging by a thread at a perilous moment for millions of Americans

• Relief talks are now hanging by a thread, with a path forward increasingly unclear.
• Republicans and Democrats are struggling to reconcile longstanding differences on the scope of an aid package.
• State aid and a liability shield for businesses to guard them from virus-related lawsuits are two of the main roadblocks.
• Policy expert Elizabeth Pancotti warned that it may be too late for Congress to prevent a lapse in federal unemployment aid for some jobless people.

Relief talks on an economic-aid package in Congress kicked off with a flurry of activity last week after months of gridlock. A bipartisan $908 billion proposal drew Democratic support from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer - a big step down from past demands for at least $2.2 trillion in emergency spending.

Yet many Republicans have not budged from their calls for a slimmer aid package that prioritizes assistance to small businesses and schools, as well as vaccine distribution. Now it is unclear where a compromise takes shape with only nine days left until the end of the congressional session.

The negotiations appeared to be hanging by a thread on Wednesday as lawmakers from both parties struggled to settle long-standing differences and finalize a rescue package. A bipartisan group of moderate senators released a summary of their $908 billion proposal earlier in the day.

The six-page summary was sparsely detailed on two fiercely contested issues: aid to state and local governments and a liability shield to guard businesses from coronavirus-related lawsuits. It highlighted the inability of lawmakers to resolve their disagreements as the clock runs out this month on numerous federal aid programs assisting millions of struggling Americans.

There was no guarantee an economic-assistance bill would get a floor vote either, since Pelosi and Schumer called it only "the starting point" for negotiations. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has plainly dismissed it so far.

McConnell on Tuesday offered to set aside GOP demands to include a liability shield in exchange for Democrats dropping aid to state and local governments. Democrats opposed it, and Schumer accused McConnell of trying to "sabotage" the talks. The Kentucky Republican attacked Democrats as obstructionists in a floor speech on Wednesday.

"We want liability in, they want state and local in," Republican Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming said in a brief interview. "So we can either try to get a solution including them or a solution excluding them, but you can't have one and not the other."

Meanwhile, congressional leaders are hoping to attach a relief package to a broader spending bill to fund the government into next year, known as an "omnibus."

"They've come up with some ideas, and I think there are many things that they're talking about could be put in the omnibus, but the fact is we're not going to have a stand-alone COVID-19 bill," Sen. John Cornyn, a senior Republican, told reporters on Wednesday. "It will be part of the omnibus if it's there at all."

The bipartisan group of senators, which includes Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Republican Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, also face growing calls from Democrats and some Republicans to include another round of $1,200 checks in the next stimulus.

The turmoil of the negotiations was amplified when the Trump administration jumped in with its own $916 billion stimulus offer on Tuesday evening, its first engagement on economic aid since October. The unexpected move threatened to blow up the fragile relief talks because the White House plan slashed the proposed amount for unemployment insurance from $180 billion to $40 billion.

Democrats condemned it. Pelosi and Schumer said in a statement the bipartisan talks were "the best hope for a bipartisan solution."

The tense relief negotiations are taking place against the backdrop of an ailing US economy and looming financial calamity for many people. An eviction moratorium is set to lapse on December 31, and up to 40 million people are at risk of losing their homes in the coming months.

A note from Moody's Analytics indicated 12 million Americans would owe nearly $5,850 in back rent if the moratorium wasn't extended.

Nearly 12 million Americans also face losing their unemployment aid if Congress doesn't renew the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program for gig workers or another federal plan extending state benefits for people who already depleted them.

Elizabeth Pancotti, a policy advisor for Employ America, told Business Insider it was likely too late for Congress to prevent the loss of unemployment benefits for some jobless people this month. According to her, it takes several weeks to recalibrate antiquated unemployment systems to provide new federal benefits.

"We needed to do this before Thanksgiving," she said.