House Democrats and Senate Republicans have expressed opposition to President Donald Trump’s $ 1.8 trillion coronavirus stimulus offer over the weekend, with White House negotiators now calling for a separate vote on small business loans until the deadlock on a larger package is lifted.

The White House offer nearly doubles the Republicans’ initial proposal when talks began in late summer, but is about $ 400 billion less than the A $ 2.2 trillion bill Democrats have already passed, leaving party leaders in Congress on both sides unhappy.

“This proposal was a step forward, two steps back,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. said about the Trump administration’s stimulus offer in a letter to its members on Saturday.

“When the president talks about wanting a bigger back-up plan, his proposal seems to mean he wants more money at his discretion to grant or withhold, rather than agreeing to language prescribing how we honor our workers, crush virus and put money in the pockets of workers, ”Pelosi said.

Congress has failed to pass new aid for months as the virus continues to spread across the country and the economic recovery slows.

Pelosi said the administration’s proposal did not have a strategic plan to contain the spread of the virus and did not have sufficient funding for state and local governments as well as financial relief for American families. .

Pelosi has asked for a deal that reinstates the extra $ 600 per week unemployment benefit that ended in July and a lot more money for child care than the administration is proposing.

Senate Republicans also voiced opposition to the administration’s offer during a Saturday morning call with the Treasury Secretary Steven mnuchin and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, sources told NBC News. They hated the package, a source said. Republicans don’t like the price tag and some of the policy areas. They challenged what they described as Democrats’ demands to provide maximum health insurance subsidies to anyone new to Obamacare as part of a deal, a source said.

Mnuchin and Meadows in a letter to Congress on Sunday said House Democrats had not compromised with Republicans on bipartisan stimulus legislation. They called for a separate vote on funding for the paycheck protection program, forgivable loans for small businesses.

“Now is the time for us to come together and immediately vote on a bill that allows us to spend unused paycheck protection program funds while continuing to work on a full package,” they wrote. “The all or nothing approach is an unacceptable response to the American people.”

Pelosi wrote in a second letter on Sunday that Trump’s failure to take the virus seriously “is reflected in the grossly inadequate response we finally received from the administration on Saturday.” Pelosi called the spending on the White House proposal for testing, tracing and treating viruses “totally inadequate” and said Democrats and Republicans “remain at an impasse” on stimulus legislation until. ” that the problems are solved.

As Election Day approaches, it’s unclear whether Congress will have time to produce a pandemic relief bill and pass it through the Republican Senate, which is moving fast to confirm. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett.

Majority leader in the Senate Mitch mcconnell said on Friday that a stimulus package is “unlikely in the next three weeks.”

Larry Kudlow, Trump’s top economic adviser, said Sunday morning that the president could go “beyond” the numbers Democrats called for in their stimulus proposal for some “key targeted areas.”

Kudlow also said he believed Senate Republicans who opposed the White House’s $ 1.8 trillion proposal would ultimately agree to a final deal.

“I think if a deal can be made, they will accept it,” Kudlow said of the Senate GOP in an interview on CNN.

Kudlow also said he doesn’t believe an economic recovery hinges on another stimulus deal. However, Jerome Powell, Chairman of the Federal Reserve, warned several days ago that “too little support would lead to a weak recovery, creating unnecessary hardship for households and businesses.”

Trump, who called off the talks several days ago, now says he changed his stance on approving more coronavirus aid ahead of the November election, telling right-wing radio host Rush Limbaugh that “I’d like to see a bigger stimulus package, frankly, whether either Democrats or Republicans come up with it.”

However, White House Director of Communications Alyssa Farah later told reporters that the administration wants a package that costs less than $ 2 trillion, which would be lower than the $ 2.2 billion bill proposed by the Democrats.

– CNBC’s Jacob Pramuk contributed to this report