White House proposes new $916 billion stimulus plan: Steven Mnuchin

US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Tuesday unveiled a new $916 billion pandemic aid proposal, aiming to break a months-long deadlock in Congress over additional aid to the coronavirus-ravaged US economy.

The proposal, slightly larger than a $908 billion measure unveiled by a bipartisan group of senators last week, would include "money for state and local governments and robust liability protections for businesses, schools and universities," Mnuchin said in a statement.

Those elements all have been key sticking points in the negotiations between Democratic and Republican lawmakers.

Mnuchin said he presented the proposal to Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday evening, and also reviewed it with outgoing president Donald Trump and Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

"I look forward to achieving bipartisan agreement so we can provide this critical economic relief to American workers, families and businesses," Mnuchin said.

Democrats and Republicans in Congress along with the Trump administration have been unable to agree for months on a successor bill to the $2.2 trillion CARES Act rescue package passed earlier this year to support the American economy.

That bill included loans and grants for small businesses, $1,200 payments to all Americans, and an expansion of the unemployment safety net, programs seen as preserving US jobs as the country struggled with the world's largest coronavirus outbreak.

But much of that aid has expired, and Mnuchin's proposal represents one of the last efforts to reach an agreement before President-elect Joe Biden takes over from Trump in January, when the new Congress also will be seated.

Also looming is an end-of-month deadline for many of the last CARES Act benefit programs for the unemployed.

Progressive think tank The Century Foundation estimates about 12 million Americans lose the jobless benefits from these programs when they expire on December 26.