Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Business loan funds said near
Trump, others hope for deal today on $450 billion package
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration and Congress are nearing agreement on an aid package of up to $450 billion to boost the small-business loan program that has run out of money and add funds for hospitals and covid-19 testing.
President Donald Trump said Sunday, “We’re getting close to a deal.”
Along with the small-business boost, Trump said the negotiators were looking at “helping our hospitals,” particularly hard-hit rural health care providers.
A deal could be announced today, the president said at a White House briefing. “We have some very good negotiations going on right now, and I think you could have a nice answer tomorrow,” Trump said on Sunday.
With small-business owners reeling during the coronavirus outbreak that has shuttered much economic activity, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said earlier Sunday he was hopeful of a deal that could pass Congress quickly and get the Small Business Administration program back up by midweek.
“I think we’re very close to a deal today. I’m hopeful that we can get that done,” he said.
Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said
he believed a deal could be reached late Sunday or early today. “We still have a few more details to deal with,” he said.
The Senate is scheduled for a pro forma session today, but no vote has been set.
The House announced it could meet as soon as Wednesday for a recorded vote on the pending package, according to a schedule update from Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md.
The emerging deal would provide $300 billion for the small-business payroll program and $50 billion for the small-business disaster fund. Additionally, it would provide $75 billion for hospitals and $25 billion for testing, according to those involved in the talks.
On a conference call Sunday afternoon that included Trump, Mnuchin and Republican senators, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., indicated the only remaining item for discussion involved the money for testing, according to a Senate GOP leadership aide who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a private call.
The government’s Paycheck Protection Program for small businesses has been swamped by companies applying for loans and reached its appropriations limit Thursday after approving nearly 1.7 million loans. That left thousands of small businesses in limbo as they sought help.
Funds for hospitals and testing were priorities sought by congressional Democrats. Hospitals are straining under a ballooning virus caseload as well as struggling to stay financially afloat after suspending elective surgeries during the pandemic. And states have said covid-19 testing is urgently needed.
STATE, LOCAL AID OUT
But additional aid to state and local governments would be left out, Mnuchin said. Democrats have been keen to boost funding to cash-strapped states and local governments whose revenue has cratered, but the issue threatened to provoke fights between large, high-tax states like California and New York and smaller states more typically run by Republicans.
But even Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker, a Republican, said on CBS that additional funding for states would be necessary to meet Trump’s goal of reopening the economy.
“It’s important for the feds to support our efforts to fund the stuff we do,” Baker said. “If we’re laying off tens of thousands of people at exactly the time when they want to reopen the economy, we’re gonna be swimming against the current they’re trying to create.”
Mnuchin said, “The president is willing to consider that in the next bill, but wants to get this over the finish line with a focus on small businesses, hospitals and testing.”
He said he’s been in touch with GOP leaders including McConnell and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and all are “on board with the same plan.” On the Sunday call with senators, Mnuchin and McConnell reiterated that money for state and local governments as well as food stamps would not be included in the package, according to the GOP aide.
“I’m hopeful that we can reach an agreement, that the Senate can pass this tomorrow [today], and that the House can take it up on Tuesday, and, Wednesday, we’d be back up and running,” Mnuchin said earlier in his TV interview.
Schumer said Democrats would insist on aid for state and local governments. They had submitted a compromise offer Friday that would provide $150 billion for states as well as cities, counties and towns based on need.
Key swing states for Trump in the November presidential election — Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin — would receive billions in new aid under the proposal, according to a senior Democratic aide who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details of private negotiations.
“We are pushing hard,” Schumer said. “We don’t want our police, our firefighters, our EMTs, our bus drivers — this is not an abstract issue. We don’t want them fired.”
“We want to make sure that it’s reaching all of America’s small businesses,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said on ABC. “And we also want to make sure that it’s operating in a community where our police and fire, our health care workers, our doctors, nurses, our teachers, are being compensated for and not fired. And that’s why we’re asking for the additional funds in the package, as well as for hospitals so that we can do testing, testing, testing.”
“I think we’re very close to agreement,” Pelosi said. The lack of testing has been a major pressure point throughout the pandemic, with lawmakers and governors lashing out at the federal government as Trump has increasingly blamed governors.
Republican Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, who leads the National Governors Association, said he and other governors believe that aid for state and local government is “desperately needed,” but that it may not be an issue worth fighting over for now.
“I don’t think the deal is finalized yet,” he said. “But, look, we do not want to hold up funding to these small businesses. And we hope that the Democrats and the Republicans in the Senate can come together in a bipartisan way and get something moving for the American people.”
Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said states need money from the federal government to ramp up testing, and he blasted legislation that wouldn’t provide it.
“You have the president saying 15 times, ‘It’s up to the governors, it’s up to the governors, it’s up to the governors,’” he said. “And then they’re going to pass a piece of legislation that gives you-know-what to states: zero, zilch, nada, niente. Whatever language you want to say it, nothing. But then how are the states supposed to do this?” Information for this article was contributed by Hope Yen, Lisa Mascaro and Andrew Taylor of The Associated Press; and by Erica Werner, Jeff Stein, Mike DeBonis and Paul Kane of The Washington Post.