Deal on a new aid package is near.
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration and congressional leaders on Sunday neared a $400 billion-plus deal to renew funding for a small-business loan program that ran out of money under crushing demand, aiming to pass the agreement into law within days.
The deal would also boost spending for hospitals and coronavirus testing by about $100 billion. President Donald Trump expressed optimism Sunday evening about clinching an agreement by Monday.
“I think we are getting close to a deal,” Trump said at the daily briefing of his coronavirus task force. He said he’d just spoken with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who’s been leading negotiations for the White House.
“We have some very good negotiations going on right now, and I think you could have a nice answer tomorrow,” Trump said.
Earlier, speaking on CNN, Mnuchin said he hoped to see the agreement pass the Senate on Monday, when the chamber is scheduled to come into session briefly in the afternoon. In a further sign of progress, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., notified House members Sunday evening to be prepared to return to the Capitol on Wednesday to vote on the emerging agreement.
The deal would add about $300 billion to the Paycheck Protection Program for small businesses that was swamped by demand in the three weeks since Congress created it as part of a $2 trillion rescue bill. It also would add $60 billion to a separate emergency small-business loan program that also is out of money, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said on CNN.
The agreement also would include $75 billion for hospitals and $25 billion for testing, which have been major Democratic demands. Some of the money in the smallbusiness program would be directed specifically to rural and minority-owned businesses, according to people familiar with the plan who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe it.
“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 added.
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.
“We’re talking about a $25 billion federal program, money that can be used with the states with new technology to invest in testing,” Mnuchin said.
Another major Democratic request — money for cities and states — appeared left out of the deal, though congressional aides cautioned that the agreement was not final.
Mnuchin said he had been in close contact with GOP congressional leaders and, “We’re all on board with the same plan.”
The House and Senate have been out of session since passing the $2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act late last month, and some members have been reluctant to return to Washington en masse. In the Senate, leaders would like to pass the legislation by “unanimous consent” so only a few members would have to be present for the proceedings, but any one senator could object and block that plan.
In the House, GOP lawmakers have indicated that they intend to demand a recorded vote that would require a majority of lawmakers to be present, leading Hoyer to notify lawmakers Sunday that they should be prepared to return to the Capitol. Democrats could use the forced vote as the moment for Pelosi to also push a rules change allowing for members to cast future votes from afar by proxy through other lawmakers in attendance, and also push through the creation of a new select committee to oversee implementation of the more than $2 trillion allocated to fighting the virus through the CARES Act and other bills.