SANTA FE, N.M — Fault­ing inac­tion in Wash­ing­ton, gov­er­nors and state law­mak­ers are rac­ing to get pan­dem­ic relief to small busi­ness own­ers, the unem­ployed, renters and oth­ers whose liveli­hoods have been upend­ed by the widen­ing coro­n­avirus outbreak.

In some cas­es, elect­ed offi­cials are spend­ing the last of a fed­er­al relief pack­age passed in the spring as an end-of-year dead­line approach­es and the fall COVID-19 surge threat­ens their economies anew. Democ­rats have been the most vocal in crit­i­ciz­ing Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump and the GOP-con­trolled Sen­ate for fail­ing to act, but many Repub­li­can law­mak­ers are also sound­ing the alarm.

Under­scor­ing the need for urgency, the num­ber of new COVID-19 cas­es report­ed in the Unit­ed States reached 205,557 on Fri­day, accord­ing to data from Johns Hop­kins Uni­ver­si­ty – the first time its dai­ly fig­ure topped the 200,000 mark. Its pre­vi­ous dai­ly high was 196,000 on Nov. 20.

The total num­ber of cas­es report­ed in the U.S., since the first one in Jan­u­ary, has topped 13 million.

The Demo­c­ra­t­ic gov­er­nors of Col­orado and New Mex­i­co con­vened spe­cial leg­isla­tive ses­sions in the clos­ing days of Novem­ber to address the virus-relat­ed emer­gency. Ear­li­er this week, the New Mex­i­co Leg­is­la­ture passed a bipar­ti­san relief bill that will deliv­er a one-time $1,200 check to all unem­ployed work­ers and give up to $50,000 to cer­tain businesses.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said the state took action to help res­i­dents “who have real issues about keep­ing food on their table, a roof over their head.”

“While the Unit­ed States of Amer­i­ca is on fire, the Trump admin­is­tra­tion has left states to fight this virus on their own,” she said, not­ing state efforts alone sim­ply are not enough. “It is clear no help is com­ing — not from this pres­i­dent, not from this admin­is­tra­tion. As we have done every day this year, New Mex­i­co will step up.”

In Col­orado, a spe­cial ses­sion sched­uled for Mon­day will con­sid­er rough­ly $300 mil­lion in relief to busi­ness­es, restau­rants and bars, child-care providers, land­lords, ten­ants, pub­lic schools and others.

“Even as cas­es have explod­ed across the coun­try, Con­gress and the pres­i­dent have not yet passed much-need­ed relief for peo­ple,” Col­orado Gov. Jared Polis said in announc­ing the ses­sion. “Here in Col­orado, we want to do the best with what we have to take care of our own.”

In New Jer­sey and Wash­ing­ton state, Repub­li­cans who are a minor­i­ty in both leg­is­la­tures were the ones push­ing for spe­cial ses­sions. They want to direct more mon­ey to strug­gling small busi­ness owners.

Repub­li­can law­mak­ers in Wis­con­sin, who con­trol both hous­es of the Leg­is­la­ture, are con­sid­er­ing whether to return in Decem­ber to address effects of the lat­est coro­n­avirus wave after Demo­c­ra­t­ic Gov. Tony Evers put for­ward a $500 mil­lion COVID-19 relief bill ear­li­er this week. Min­neso­ta Gov. Tim Walz, a Demo­c­rat, plans to con­vene law­mak­ers in Decem­ber to con­tend with the virus, par­tial­ly at Repub­li­cans’ urging.

“Sen­ate Repub­li­cans are com­mit­ted to recov­er­ing our econ­o­my that has been harmed by broad and pro­longed shut­downs,” Min­neso­ta Sen­ate Major­i­ty Leader Paul Gazel­ka said in a state­ment. “We will work with any­one to find solutions.”

State gov­ern­ment lead­ers want Trump and Con­gress to extend the Dec. 30 dead­line for spend­ing virus relief mon­ey already allo­cat­ed under the CARES Act, which was approved in March, and to pro­vide more fed­er­al fund­ing to deal with the con­se­quences of the lat­est surge.

“It’s just heart­break­ing what they’re allow­ing to hap­pen with no fed­er­al gov­ern­ment inter­ven­tion,” said Wash­ing­ton state House Speak­er Lau­rie Jink­ins, a Democrat.

In mak­ing his deci­sion to call the Min­neso­ta Leg­is­la­ture into spe­cial ses­sion, Walz cit­ed “a sense of urgency” around doing some­thing on the state lev­el due to the lack of a fed­er­al response.

The Min­neso­ta Coun­cil of Non­prof­its report­ed that more than half of the state’s char­i­ta­ble orga­ni­za­tions received for­giv­able loans through the CARES Act’s Pay­check Pro­tec­tion Pro­gram this year, while anoth­er $12 mil­lion from the CARES Act is going to orga­ni­za­tions that pro­vide food to the needy. But all that will be spent — or lost — by the end of Decem­ber with­out con­gres­sion­al action.

“I would reit­er­ate to our fed­er­al part­ners — to the out­go­ing admin­is­tra­tion and to the incom­ing Biden admin­is­tra­tion — please work togeth­er, please find a com­pro­mise in there, please. If you have to, move a pack­age now with the idea that you will come back and move one lat­er,” Walz said. “COVID is not going to end at the end of the month. We are in an unre­lent­ing spike.”

In Ohio, where Repub­li­cans con­trol every branch of gov­ern­ment, Gov. Mike DeWine and leg­isla­tive lead­ers pushed a $420 mil­lion pan­dem­ic spend­ing pack­age through a spe­cial bipar­ti­san pan­el late last month. Fund­ed through the CARES Act, it offered grants to small busi­ness­es, bars and restau­rants, low-income renters, arts groups, and col­leges and universities.

Penn­syl­va­nia House Major­i­ty Leader Ker­ry Ben­ningoff, a Repub­li­can, gives cred­it to the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment for the bil­lions in aid pre­vi­ous­ly sent out, but he said small busi­ness­es and peo­ple who have lost work need more fed­er­al assistance.

“The election’s over,” Ben­ning­hoff said. “This is not a time for finger-pointing.”

In neigh­bor­ing New Jer­sey, the par­ti­san divide over $4 bil­lion in COVID-19 bor­row­ing backed by the Demo­c­ra­t­ic gov­er­nor and Leg­is­la­ture prompt­ed a court chal­lenge by minor­i­ty Repub­li­cans. The state’s high court sided with Gov. Phil Murphy’s admin­is­tra­tion, cit­ing the unprece­dent­ed nature of the outbreak.

Even so, Mur­phy has reg­u­lar­ly plead­ed with Con­gress for more aid.

“It’s shame­ful that they have not act­ed in Con­gress, espe­cial­ly (Sen­ate Major­i­ty Leader Mitch) McConnell and the Repub­li­can Sen­ate, to throw a life­line to small busi­ness­es,” he said.

Repub­li­cans have pro­posed a $300 mil­lion aid pack­age to small busi­ness­es and non­prof­its, but the leg­is­la­tion is stalled. GOP law­mak­ers told the gov­er­nor if he does not call a spe­cial ses­sion to address the need, many busi­ness­es and char­i­ties “might not sur­vive the winter.”

Law­mak­ers in one state, Illi­nois, threw up theirs hands and went home despite an unad­dressed $3.9 bil­lion bud­get deficit. They cit­ed the health threat posed by the virus and hope for help from the nation’s capital.

“If the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment doesn’t stand up and step in, we’re in a very bad sit­u­a­tion — for our schools, col­leges and uni­ver­si­ties, health care pro­grams, child care, senior ser­vices,” House Major­i­ty Leader Greg Har­ris, a Demo­c­rat, said. “This isn’t like all the blue states are hurt­ing and all the red states are hum­ming along. Everybody’s in bad shape.”

Carr Smyth report­ed from Colum­bus, Ohio. Asso­ci­at­ed Press writ­ers Jim Ander­son and Patri­cia Nieberg in Den­ver; Michael Catal­i­ni in Newark, N.J.; Steve Karnows­ki in Min­neapo­lis; Rachel La Corte in Olympia, Wash.; Geoff Mul­vi­hill in Dav­en­port, Iowa; John O’Connor in Spring­field, Ill.; and Mark Scol­foro in Har­ris­burg, Pa., con­tributed to this report.