The four congressional leaders have agreed that any additional pandemic aid should be wrapped into the year-end spending measure, and that Congress should not adjourn without approving some pandemic relief as Covid-19 cases continue to rise across the country and the government works to distribute the vaccine to essential workers and others. Even if Congress were to pass a bill this week, it may not be in time to prevent millions of Americans from going weeks with no source of income, given that many state unemployment offices have already programmed their systems to cut off benefits after next week, when the current pandemic programs expire. There are still hurdles to a final agreement, particularly without a bipartisan consensus on the two thorniest policy impediments: a Democratic demand for additional aid to support state and local governments and a Republican push for sweeping liability protections for businesses, hospitals, schools and other institutions open during the pandemic. 