A new economic relief package is becoming a likelihood, in the words of key officeholders, as the pandemic toll on the labor market becomes clearer.
The Labor Department reported Thursday that 2.4 million people in the United States filed for unemployment benefits last week, bringing the total during the pandemic to 39 million.
Meanwhile, senators left the Hill Thursday for a weeklong recess without extending the small-business Paycheck Protection Program, despite hopes that they might quickly pass the legislation, a relatively minor extension of existing aid, before leaving.
Feel increasingly(yet cautiously)optimistic we will have strong bipartisan support to pass a bill today that would extend the period in which small businesses can use #PPP funds.Thanks to @SenatorCollins @BenCardinforMD @SenatorShaheen @SenCoryGardner @SenThomTillis @SteveDaines
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) May 21, 2020
Yet, high-ranking Republicans, who had previously taken a wait-and-see attitude toward more major economic relief, indicated that a much larger legislative package is now likely.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Fox News that there’s a “high likelihood” that Congress will need to pass another significant fiscal measure.
Similarly, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said earlier in the day that, to revive the economy, “There is a strong likelihood we will need another bill.”
The Paycheck Protection Program was passed in March as part of the $2.2 trillion CARES Act. It provides forgivable loans to small businesses that maintain payrolls, a key measure meant to stave off depression-levels of small-business closures.
The deadline to apply for a loan through the PPP is June 30. The bipartisan bill that Sen. Marco Rubio, the Republican chairman of the Small Business Committee, and his Democratic counterparts had sought to pass Thursday would extend the application deadline to the end of the year and double the amount of time businesses have to spend the loan money to 16 weeks.
Congress also included a boost to unemployment insurance, with an additional $600 per week for workers who file for unemployment as part of the March CARES Act. That benefit is set to expire in July, and it remains unclear whether Congress will renew the benefit in another stimulus package.
House Democrats passed a $3 trillion relief package last week that included an extension to the additional unemployment benefit. Senate Republicans, however, said the bill is dead on arrival. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the House will also vote next week on a bill to extend the length of time businesses have to repay PPP loans to 24 weeks and relax the requirement that businesses use 75% of the funds on payroll spending.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer issued an executive order Thursday permitting retail businesses and auto dealerships to reopen next Tuesday by appointment only. Whitmer has faced weeks of sharp criticism for her statewide lockdown measures.
“The data shows that Michigan is ready to phase in these sectors of our economy, but we must stay vigilant and ensure we’re doing everything we can to protect ourselves and our families from the spread of COVID-19,” she said Thursday.
Gatherings of 10 people or fewer are now permitted as well. Next Friday, veterinary procedures will be allowed to resume, and healthcare providers will be able to perform elective dental and medical procedures that had to be postponed so as to reserve hospital capacity for COVID-19 patients.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is pushing Congress to include liability protection for businesses reopening amid the coronavirus pandemic, which will likely be vulnerable to coronavirus-related lawsuits.
“There are opportunistic, class-action security lawsuits that can claim that companies did take or did not take action in response to the pandemic which caused the stock to drop,” Harold Kim, president of legal reform at the Chamber said Thursday.
The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, an agency within the Department of Health and Human Services, announced Thursday it would provide up to $1.2 billion to pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca to develop a vaccine, the fourth and largest agreement to fund vaccine research so far.
The goal is to create 300 million doses of a vaccine by October 2020 as part of President Trump’s “Operation Warp Speed,” which aims to accelerate the vaccine development process.
“The Trump Administration is making multiple major investments in developing and manufacturing promising vaccines long before they’re approved so that a successful vaccine will reach the American people without a day wasted,” HHS Secretary Alex Azar said.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Thursday that employees will be allowed to work from home even after the coronavirus pandemic ends. He said during a livestream that roughly half of all employees, around 45,000, might work remotely for the next five to 10 years.
Trump refused to wear a protective mask while touring a Ford production plant in Michigan Thursday in defiance of state law and company policy that requires people to wear them. He said he was wearing a mask while off-camera and “didn’t want to give the press the pleasure of seeing it.”
Trump has repeatedly refused to wear a mask in public, telling reporters that he has been tested several times, as have people around him, and the risk of contracting COVID-19 is low.
When asked why Trump was disobeying company policy and state law by not wearing a mask, company chairman Bill Ford said, “It’s up to him.”
