Hundreds of members of the U.S. House of Representatives will gather in Washington today to pass a $484 billion coronavirus relief bill, bringing the unprecedented total of funds approved for the crisis to nearly $3 trillion, Reuters reported. The measure is expected to be approved with solid bipartisan support in the Democratic-led House, but opposition by some members of both parties forced legislators to return to Washington despite stay-at-home orders intended to control the spread of the virus. The Republican-led Senate passed the legislation on Tuesday, so approval by the House will send it to the White House, where President Donald Trump has promised to quickly sign it into law. The bill — which would be the fourth passed to address the crisis — provides funds to small businesses and hospitals struggling with the economic toll of a pandemic that has killed more than 45,000 Americans and put more than 22 million out of work. Read more.
While the House is expected to approve an additional $320 billion for the Paycheck Protection Program today, there are concerns by lenders and small-business advocates that the funding still won’t be enough to meet demand for the coronavirus aid, the Wall Street Journal reported. Banks, credit unions and community-based lenders say that they have a backlog of applications for the PPP loans, after the roughly $350 billion allocated for the program ran out last week. “We believe our members have as many applications pending as they submitted during the initial round of funding, and the funds Congress is set to approve this week will likely all be used,” a spokesman for the Consumer Bankers Association said yesterday. Read more. (Subscription required.)
