Top administration officials said Friday they will recommend President Trump move forward with executive orders to address the economic fallout from the coronavirus as negotiations on Capitol Hill collapsed.
"In the meantime, we're going to take executive orders, to try to alleviate some of the pain that people are experiencing," White House chief of staff Mark Meadows told reporters.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said that he and Meadows "will recommend to the president based upon our lack of activity today to move forward with some executive orders."
"Again we agree with the Speaker, this is not the first choice," he added.
Mnuchin said administration officials will be recommending executive orders to deal with unemployment after the $600 per week federal benefit expired last week. They will also recommend that Trump sign orders relating to rental foreclosures and student loans.
"It's going to take a little bit of time for us to finalize these and process them but we'll do them as quickly as we can because the president wants action," Mnuchin said.
The executive orders could be signed as soon as the weekend, the GOP negotiators said.
They did not specifically mention trying to use an executive order to enact a payroll tax cut, something Trump has floated in recent days. White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow said earlier Friday that an executive order suspending the payroll tax was nearly completed and that he thinks Trump will sign it.
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