High stakes negotiation: Reaching agreement on pandemic aid in 2020

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States faced one of the worst global economic crises in history. It had to do so amid a divided government, a House and Senate controlled by different parties, and a presidential election year. Despite these challenges, Congress enacted a set of sweeping COVID-aid measures on a wholly bipartisan basis. Contrary to its reputation for gridlock and inaction, Congress put in place the most robust economic response to the COVID-19 pandemic of any advanced democracy. This chapter draws on concepts from scholarship on negotiation to analyze how the Senate, House, and president reached agreement on these massive legislative packages. These expenditures had dramatic policy effects: they prevented a rise in poverty, boosted personal incomes and savings, saved many enterprises from bankruptcy, shored up the health care system, sustained the transportation sector, and rolled out COVID tests and vaccines to the population.