U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Sunday they were willing to resume COVID-19 aid talks, after President Donald Trump signed executive orders on coronavirus relief on Saturday. Democrats called the president's move a pre-election ploy that is not going to deliver real results for Americans in financial distress.

For example, Trump's action does not directly extend the previous federal supplement to unemployment benefits. Instead, there will be a separate system partially funded by the states to pay for the benefit. It was unclear if or how states would come up with the additional money to cover the benefit.

Trump also called on companies to defer withholding payroll taxes, but those taxes were merely postponed, not eliminated. 

Democrats have argued a comprehensive COVID-19 aid package is what Americans truly need.

Both Pelosi and Mnuchin indicated they may consider extending some aid until the end of the year and then propose more federal assistance if needed in January.

"Let's pass legislation on things that we agree on," Mnuchin told Fox News in an interview. "We don't have to get everything done at once... What we should do is get things done for the American public now, come back for another bill afterwards.”

For now, Mnuchin is urging lawmakers to accept funds the administration is making available to provide financial support for schools' reopening and help the jobless. 

The House passed a 3.4 trillion coronavirus relief package in May, maintaining the $600 per week additional unemployment benefit and providing more financial assistance to cash-strapped states and cities affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Republican-led Senate countered with a $1 trillion package proposal, followed by subsequent negotiations between both parties and the White House that failed to come to a compromise agreement.

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