WASHINGTON _ With unemployment claims topping 26 million in the past five weeks due to the coronavirus pandemic, the House is expected to vote Thursday to approve another half-trillion dollars in federal relief to replenish a depleted small-business loan program and provide money for hospitals and testing.
The bill includes $310 billion for the Paycheck Protection Program, which offers forgivable loans to small businesses that keep workers on the payroll during the economic shutdown caused by the pandemic.
The program exhausted its original $349 billion last week, but efforts to immediately boost funding stalled as Democrats and Republicans bickered over what else to include. An agreement was reached early Tuesday and the Senate passed it by voice vote that day. After approval by the House, the measure heads to the president, who has vowed to sign it.
With the latest bill, Congress will have approved more than $2.5 trillion to assist Americans, shuttered businesses, hospitals, vaccine researchers and others fighting the pandemic.
Discussions are already underway about what more needs to be done.
Thursday's bill included $75 billion in emergency funding for hospitals and $25 billion to increase testing and contact tracing. It also requires the Trump administration to create a national testing plan, a move medical experts insist will be necessary before state governments can allow businesses to resume activity. It orders states and the federal government to collect demographic data on those who have fallen ill.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Thursday the government needs the scientific data to combat the health crisis. "We must make our decisions in that way," she said.
The bill also sets aside $60 billion in the Paycheck Protection Program to be lent by smaller banking institutions, such as credit unions, in an attempt to increase the number of loans going to very small businesses or businesses without an existing relationship with a bank. That includes female- and minority-owned businesses that complained they were shut out of the initial round of funding.
Following widespread criticism that large, publicly traded companies received tens of millions of dollars in loans in the first tranche of Paycheck Protection Program funding, the Treasury Department on Thursday updated its guidance on who should use the program.
It warned that companies that received money should be prepared to certify that the government loan was necessary to continue operations. Otherwise those companies should return the money by May 7 or face penalties, the department said.
"It is unlikely that a public company with substantial market value and access to capital markets will be able to make the required certification in good faith," the guidance now states.
"If there is anybody out there that misuses this program, that takes advantage of a situation (in which we were trying to release money quickly) and it was not intended for you, we will find you. Give the money back," House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said in a news conference Wednesday.
The Capitol has been largely shuttered for weeks, with members working remotely.
For the first major House floor activity in weeks, dozens of members wore face masks Thursday. Gloves, hand sanitizer and extra masks were available outside the chamber. Members will vote in eight groups of 60, divided in alphabetical order.
Floor action was expected to pause for 30 minutes between votes so the chamber could be cleaned. On the floor, staff members enforced social distancing, ordering members to stay four seats away from each other in a cavernous room that normally bustles with up to 435 back-slapping, deal-wheeling representatives at a time.
Representatives were also scheduled to vote on a new oversight committee to monitor how the administration spends the money Congress has provided to address the pandemic.
