Durbin, the state’s senior senator and the No. 2 ranking Democrat in the chamber, said there was a “real sense of urgency” for moving ahead with a new coronavirus relief package. He and Duckworth backed the measure the House passed on May 15, which is opposed by Republicans led by Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell. The Republicans favor a pause in financial relief to see how previous money allocated as a result of the pandemic have been spent.

Durbin said the House package would extend a $600 federal weekly bonus to unemployment checks, which is set to expire at the end of July, provide another round of $1,200 stimulus checks to adults and boost the amount to parents of children, enhance funding for hospitals, and extend and relax provisions of the Paycheck Protection Program to small businesses.

“The biggest piece of it goes to state and local governments,” Durbin said of the $1 trillion allocated for that purpose in the House-passed bill.

“If we don’t get a helping hand from Washington for state and local governments, there are going to be layoffs of policemen and firefighters and teachers and medical workers — the exact opposite of what we need at this moment,” he said.

Illinois lawmakers last weekend approved a new state budget that is heavily dependent upon more federal help from Washington. The state would borrow up to $5 billion from a special municipal program created by the Federal Reserve and would pay it off from relief funds from a new stimulus bill.