1) Here is the general lay of the land for the rare Saturday session by the House to consider an infusion of $25 billion for the Postal Service.

2) First, it’s rare to have a weekend session. It’s even more rare to have a weekend session in August because of the traditional August recess. Even the House and Senate met with just skeleton crews in late August, 2006 to provide money to FEMA after Hurricane Katrina.

3) But in this instance, the entire House will be session – although some members will vote remotely due to the pandemic.
 
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) decided to hold this session on a weekend to wedge it in between the two party conventions.

4) The bill up today only focuses on the Postal Service. However, dozens of House Democrats have implored Pelosi to tack on coronavirus aid. That isn’t expected to happen at this stage. Pelosi says the House already approved a coronavirus bill in May.

5) Still, many House Democrats are calling on the House to consider some form of coronavirus aid today. While many Democrats are doing this, there is no agreement on what that plan would look like. So it’s doubtful they add something like that onto the schedule today.

6) White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and other GOPer are touting the concept of a “skinny” coronavirus bill. This is an effort to contrast the GOP with the Democrats. The GOP wants the public to see Democrats focusing on USPS…while they work on coronavirus bill.

7) But that is something of a mirage as Republicans still can’t pass that bill through the Senate without Dem support. And GOPers remain divided. This is a war of optics.