Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer lay down markers for ‘interim emergency’ relief package

Senate Democrats threatened Wednesday to derail Republicans’ plans for a swift uncontested vote on more aid for small businesses shuttered by the coronavirus outbreak, demanding the proposal include extra money for hospitals, low-income communities and food stamps.

With the White House hoping to reopen at least parts of the economy by early May, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer laid down markers for what congressional Democrats want in the next legislative response to the coronavirus pandemic.

In addition to the $250 billion proposed by the administration to replenish an emergency fund for small business loans and grants, Democrats would more than double the cost by adding $125 billion for financial institutions that serve low-income communities, $100 billion more for hospitals, $150 billion for state and local governments and a 15% increase in food stamp benefits.

Mrs. Pelosi said Wednesday that Republicans rejected the Democrats’ proposal.

“They don’t want to do that, I don’t know why,” she said on National Public Radio. “The White House says they don’t support that, but we do.”

President Trump said late Wednesday that he’s hopeful that Democrats will cooperate.

“I think we have a pretty good understanding with the Democrats,” he said at the daily White House coronavirus briefing. “Hopefully it’s going to be bipartisan. We do not have time for partisan games.”

If Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is able to secure passage of the GOP’s plan via voice vote or unanimous consent on Thursday — a tough task given Democrats’ position — it will still need to pass the Democratic-controlled House.

“The bill that they put forth will not get unanimous support in the House. It just won’t,” Mrs. Pelosi said.

The Democrats could thwart Mr. McConnell’s move to approve more emergency aid to enable small businesses to keep their employees; an objection by only one senator would stop the GOP’s effort. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, Maryland Democrat, told Politico that Mr. McConnell is “playing chicken” with Democrats by essentially daring them to object to the GOP plan.

Sen. John Cornyn, Texas Republican, said Democrats “should drop their shameful threat to block this funding immediately.”

“Our small businesses desperately need help — now,” Mr. Cornyn said.

Mr. McConnell’s office said he still planned to call for a voice vote, which would allow most senators to observe social distancing guidelines, avoiding travel and attendance in the Senate chamber.

Congress provided $350 billion for small business loans and grants in the $2.2 trillion rescue package that President Trump signed into law on March 27. Under the Paycheck Protection Program, companies with 500 or fewer employees can obtain loans of up to $10 million to cover payroll for two months, plus some expenses. The payroll portion of the loan will be forgiven if employees keep their jobs.

But the depth of the economic shutdown has created greater-than-expected demand for the money, even as the Small Business Administration struggles to process applications and sign up more banks to take part.

“We have 3,500 lenders up on the system with many more getting signed up every day,” Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin said Wednesday on CNBC. “I want to assure all small businesses out there: we will not run out of money. We hope they pass this [bill] tomorrow and Friday. And we want to assure everybody — if you don’t get a loan this week, you’ll get a loan next week or the following week.”

The SBA said Wednesday it has processed more than 400,000 loans since Friday, and distributed more than $100 billion from the fund. Still, small business owners and lenders were reporting problems with processing applications, and banks refusing to participate or accepting applications only from current clients.

Sen. Marco Rubio, Florida Republican and chairman of the Senate Small Business Committee, said the problems are being reduced every day.

“It’s had some significant glitches,” he said in a Facebook video. “What I ask is — don’t give in to despair, don’t give into the negativity. There are a lot of people working really hard to make this thing work.”

In a conference call with House Democrats, Mr. Mnuchin also said direct payments of up to $1,200 for most Americans will start to go out next week from the IRS. Families who qualify also will receive $500 per child.

And Mr. Mnuchin said Treasury will likely announce rules this week for a “Main Street Lending Facility” through the Federal Reserve to provide emergency loans to medium-sized companies with more than 500 employees which don’t qualify for the PPP and can’t obtain credit through the Fed. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell could provide details during an online event Thursday.

Underscoring the urgency of the economic crisis, analysts were expecting the government’s report on weekly unemployment claims on Thursday to meet or exceed last week’s record 6.6 million. About 10 million workers have applied for jobless benefits in just two weeks since the pandemic closed many sectors of the economy.

Nearly one-third of renters didn’t pay their rent on time on April 1, according to a report Wednesday by the National Multifamily Housing Council. And the Federal Reserve said in a new report that only one in five healthy small businesses had sufficient cash reserves to get through a two-month revenue loss without layoffs, cuts in operations or delayed payments.

Despite the hardships and uncertainty, stocks posted strong gains Wednesday for the second time in three days. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 779 points, or 3.4%, to close at 23,433.

The S&P 500 also rose 3.4%, and the Nasdaq Composite climbed 2.5%. The major indexes were up nearly 8% on Monday.

Mr. Trump is eager to recapture the economic boom that his policies had helped to create, including record low unemployment and the Dow topping 29,000 points just two months ago. He said Wednesday he wants to move on a second round of prosperty “much sooner rather than later.”

He and his advisers have been conferring with greater intensity in recent days on how to get the economy up and running again, and how quickly. They held a planning session in the Roosevelt Room, just off the Oval Office, late into the night on Tuesday.

The president said there are two basic proposals under consideration: opening up all regions of the country at once, or reopening in phases beginning with regions that haven’t been hard-hit by the virus.

Asked how he’ll decide, Mr. Trump said, “We have to be on that downslide of that slope [of new cases]. We can do it in phases. Those meetings will start taking place fairly soon.”

The president said he would “rely very heavily” on his medical experts.

White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said this week that he hopes to reopen the economy within four to eight weeks, but cautioned that it depends on the course of coronavirus infections. The administration has extended social-distancing guidelines to limit the spread of the disease until the end of this month.

While that debate continues, Washington is eyeing at least two more rounds of disaster aid to help workers, businesses, states and communities in need of cash and medical supplies.

Mrs. Pelosi and Mr. Schumer said after Congress passes the “interim emergency” proposal for small businesses, lawmakers will move on to a bigger bill that would enlarge benefits in the recently approved $2.2 trillion economic rescue package that is just beginning to reach workers and companies. They said the next bill must provide “transformational relief” to the public.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo wrote to his state’s congressional delegation this week and said any successor to the most recent rescue package “must include unrestricted fiscal support specifically to offset revenue losses.”

He said his state is “broke” and that it’s facing revenue losses of $10 billion to $15 billion because of the pandemic.

“There has been absolutely no help to offset it,” he wrote. “In the absence of significant federal assistance, the state has no option but to make reductions to critically needed state spending.”

Mr. Cuomo also said he wanted to see a more generous federal Medicaid reimbursement that had been part of an earlier package.

Rep. Thomas Massie, who tried to force a roll call vote in the House on the $2.2 trillion rescue package, said Wednesday that Mrs. Pelosi should allow remote voting.

“Once again, they’re recommending just let Nancy Pelosi pass it on her own, that we could all stay home,” the Kentucky Republican said on Fox Business Network. “And I’m saying, that’s not going to fly — doesn’t fly with the Constitution, doesn’t fly for accountability to the taxpayers.”

Mrs. Pelosi and other Democratic leaders have consistently batted down talk of remote voting in the House, which would require a rules change.

“Don’t blame me,” Mr. Massie said. “Ten days ago, I got blamed by everybody including the president for trying to delay the bill. I wasn’t trying to do that. I was just trying to get some accountability.”