WASHINGTON — Republican senators are casting doubt that there is enough support in their caucus for a stimulus package before the election that the administration is negotiating with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

There’s new urgency in the back-and-forth between negotiators in their ongoing stimulus relief talks. The Speaker told the White House that a deal needs to be reached by Tuesday if the president wants to sign new legislation into law ahead of election day. 

A new obstacle is emerging, though, and the divisions may not be occurring between the White House and Pelosi. Instead, it could between President Donald Trump and Senate Republicans. 

“The Secretary and I have had a number of fruitful conversations over the last couple of days,” White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said to reporters on Monday.

Meadows remains hopeful a deal can be reached by the deadline, but one sticking point remains: The cost of the bill. The two sides have come closer in recent weeks, but even if the White House and Pelosi strike a deal, it doesn’t mean Republicans will get on board. 

“I can tell you this, there are some in the Senate that would support it, whether there is enough votes to get to the 60 vote threshold that’s up to leader McConnell,” Meadows said.

Sen. Marco Rubio admitted it’ll be difficult for his fellow Republican senators to get behind a proposal with a large price tag and that could halt negotiations before the election. 

"There could be some [Republicans], unfortunately. It really depends on how many Democrats come on board to make up for it,” Rubio said in an interview with Spectrum News.

“I’ve said, I’m not doing the $3 trillion proposal," he added. "It had all kinds of spending in there that we don’t need to deal with right now."

Democratic leaders have been floating a $2.2 trillion proposal, while the White House has offered $1.8 trillion. However, the $1.8 trillion deal is not even gaining traction with fiscally conservative Republican Senators, who are reluctant to pass a larger deal.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell committed to considering any deal that would be worked out between Pelosi and Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

“If Speaker Pelosi ever lets the House reach a bipartisan agreement with the administration, the Senate would of course consider it,” the McConnell wrote in a statement.

Sen. John Thune, the majority whip, told reporters Monday he doesn’t believe there could be enough votes within the GOP to approve a $1.8 trillion or higher stimulus. 

The Senate plans to move forward with a vote this week that would include additional money for the Paycheck Protection Program and a more modest stimulus package of $500 billion. 

“Why not at least help small businesses?" Rubio said. "If we can agree on that, why not just pass something that contains all the things we agree on, instead of saying we’re not going to agree to everything until we settle all the issues. We wouldn’t do that in real life, it makes absolutely no sense."