Aid

argued that amount was so large as to dissuade some unemployed people from looking for a job.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order to provide $300 in weekly benefits, with states supplying $100. But that program has not been widely supported by states and has now expired.

Powell and Mnuchin testified this week before committees in both the House and Senate that are providing oversight of programs created to deal with the economic fallout from the pandemic.

Mnuchin said that in addition to the $130 billion that has not yet been spent from the Paycheck Protection Program, he would support reallocating $200 billion that Congress gave to Treasury to serve as a backstop for potential loan losses in various emergency programs being run by the Fed.

Many of those Fed programs are operating far below the levels that had been expected, so Treasury has not had to use the money provided to cover losses.

Powell repeated his view that providing more support was essential to keep the economy on a sustained upturn. He said that a big risk is that many unemployed people will have a hard time finding new jobs because they work in areas of the economy where job losses have been the largest, such as restaurants and bars.

Mnuchin was pressed by some senators to further simplify government forms that businesses need to provide to qualify for having their Paycheck Protection Program loans forgiven.

He said Treasury and the Small Business Administration had made the forms easier to fill out but he could support legislation that has been proposed to automatically forgive loans of less than $150,000. That, with the caveat that government auditors be allowed to review loans in that category where questions were raised about whether the money was fraudulently obtained.

WASHINGTON POST / AP POOL Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell (right) and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin testify Thursday about the quarterly CARES Act report.