Democratic leader Sen. Chuck Schumer predicted Tuesday morning that the Senate would strike a deal on the interim coronavirus emergency bill in time to pass it during the Senate's pro forma session Tuesday afternoon. This is a stopgap bill between the CARES Act, which passed nearly a month ago, and the next big trillions’ worth of stimulus Congress swears will still come.
This iteration will provide $75 billion for hospitals and $25 billion to expand testing, in addition to $350 billion to the "small business" loan program in CARES—the loans that went to some very big businesses and banks and businesses in red states. McConnell spent more than a week trying to shove that extra small business funding through the Senate, so Democrats insisted on putting some restrictions on the next tranche of loans to ensure the funds get to more needy businesses as well as ensuring critical funding gets to hospitals. They largely bypassed McConnell and worked this deal out with Treasury Secretary Mnuchin.
According to The Hill, the bill will carve out $125 billion for "underbanked" businesses, which are the ones we all think of when we think small business—small restaurants, nail salons, and others that don't have lawyers and brokers and bankers as friends to help them secure the loans. The backlash after the stories about huge restaurant chains like Ruth's Chris and Shake Shack getting tens of millions in loans helped with getting that carving out done.
But Democrats failed to get either more money for state and local governments or a 15% increase in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Schumer said that what they did get was that $25 billion for states to ramp up coronavirus testing programs. "This is one of the last things we had to hold out for. We do believe the states need money [for more testing]," Schumer said. "You need a national strategy and the president, Mnuchin and [chief of staff Mark] Meadows agreed to that to their credit and it will be in the proposal." If Trump doesn't figure out a way to intercept those tests, that is. Supposedly all the rest of what Democrats intended to fight for in this bill will be in the next one.
In case you're as overwhelmed with information as the rest of us, here's a coronavirus stimulus bills primer to help you keep it all straight.
