Senate Approves $480 Billion For New Coronavirus Relief Package

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Senate leaders have passed a roughly $480 billion relief package, which will allow a depleted small business lending program to restart at a time when thousands of businesses are waiting for their loans to be fulfilled.

After much wrangling, praise for the announcement on the deal came from both sides of the aisle on Tuesday, with Democratic members of Congress touting inclusion of $60 billion for small-business disaster loans and Republicans praising the agreement for continuing the administration's aid efforts.

The legislation would inject $310 billion into the Paycheck Protection Program, assign $75 billion to hospitals and reserve $25 billion to a new coronavirus testing program, the Washington Post reports.

The deal passed a voice vote in the Senate Tuesday afternoon. The House is expected to vote on the measure Thursday. Earlier today, President Donald Trump tweeted that he would sign the measure.

The latest agreement represents an attempt to right the failures of the first iteration of the Paycheck Protection Plan, a $349 billion program that drew funding from the $2 trillion Cares Act economic stimulus package. The money was intended to help businesses stave off nightmare economic scenarios and widespread unemployment.

The program was hugely popular, receiving applications from 1.6 million companies. It managed to burn through its initial billions in just thirteen days, and in the meantime reporters revealed that millions were sucked up by publicly traded companies and restaurant chains.

CNN reported Tuesday that the deal has been reached and other outlets report final details are being ironed out.

The shortfall left thousands of small businesses waiting for money that was no longer available. That's where the additional $500 billion being considered today would come in: $320 billion would fund new loans to small businesses. The deal would also include $75 billion in spending for hospitals and $25 billion for coronavirus testing.

The deal under consideration followed negotiations between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer told CNN today that the sides talked by phone yesterday "well past midnight" and "came to an agreement on just about every issue."

There are still some sticking points. Disagreements persist between Democrats and Republicans around the federal government's role in monitoring an expanded program of coronavirus testing.

The measure does not include any new funding for local and state governments.