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Top congressional leaders said they were coming closer to reaching an agreement on another coronavirus relief package, broadcasting progress after months of fitful efforts to approve more aid, the Wall Street Journal reported. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) met repeatedly yesterday, the group’s first meeting in weeks. Lawmakers are hurrying to craft another aid package this week, before the holidays and the expiration of several key aid provisions. The talks were held one day after a bipartisan group of rank-and-file lawmakers largely wrapped up their work on a compromise coronavirus relief proposal. That agreement included an extension of unemployment insurance and funding for schools, vaccine distribution and small businesses, among other provisions. But the bipartisan coalition came up short in its efforts to reach a broad deal on the thorniest issue: liability protections for businesses and other entities operating during the pandemic. Instead, lawmakers released a $748 billion bill bundling together many of the less-controversial proposals but excluding liability protections backed by Republicans and $160 billion in state and local aid sought by Democrats.

Airlines would get $17 billion in U.S. government aid to recall furloughed workers and help cover payrolls through March under a bipartisan pandemic relief package unveiled in Congress on Monday that won immediate backing from an industry group, Bloomberg News reported. Airlines “enthusiastically support” the proposal, the trade group Airlines for America said in a press release. Carriers will attempt to bring back workers who have been laid off if it passes, “but that becomes increasingly challenging with each passing day,” the group said. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi asked top congressional leaders in both parties to meet yesterday to discuss COVID-19 relief and a crucial government spending package, congressional aides said, in what could be a make-or-break moment for a grand bargain after months of stalemate. The $748 billion bill was put forth by a dozen senators and has the support of 50 House members. Some Democrats in the group suggested voting on the bill even though it doesn’t have a top Democratic priority of state and local aid. Carriers are losing more than two-thirds of passengers compared with 2019 levels due to COVID-19 and cut tens of thousands of workers after initial government assistance aimed at paying salaries expired on Oct. 1.

Warren Buffett urged Congress to extend the Paycheck Protection Program to help the millions of small businesses that have become “collateral damage” in the fight against COVID-19, Bloomberg News reported. “We need another injection to complete the job,” Buffett, chairman and chief executive officer of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., said in a CNBC interview yesterday. “Congress is debating that right now, and I hope very much that they extend the PPP.” Buffett argued that small businesses need more stimulus now to help them weather the rest of the coronavirus shutdowns. He was joined in the interview by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. CEO David Solomon, who argued that small businesses need more help even as the pandemic’s finish line is visible, with vaccines beginning to be distributed. “The steps that the Fed and Treasury took to put liquidity into the market have certainly helped large businesses,” Solomon said. “But small businesses don’t have that access.”

Most small business owners in the U.S. believe the worst of the coronavirus pandemic is still ahead of them, with half saying their operations would permanently close within a year unless the business environment improves, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said yesterday, Reuters reported. A new U.S. Chamber-MetLife poll of small businesses taken from Oct. 30-Nov. 10 showed that 74 percent of the owners said that they need further government assistance to weather the pandemic. That percentage rises to 81 percent for minority-owned businesses. The quarterly poll found that the 62 percent of small business owners fear that the worst is still to come with COVID-19’s economic impact. Only 40 percent said they believe their small businesses can operate indefinitely during the current business environment.

LRGHealthcare President and CEO Kevin Donovan said that Concord (N.H.) Hospital is the sole health care institution interested in acquiring Lakes Region General Hospital, Franklin Regional Hospital and the hospitals’ ambulatory sites through chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, the Laconia Daily Sun reported. LRGHealthcare has filed a motion in federal bankruptcy court to cancel a bankruptcy auction set for today. Once the parties are granted a final order, they can begin the process of seeking approval from regulatory agencies, including the New Hampshire Attorney General’s office and the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services. LRGHealthcare filed for chapter 11 protection on Oct. 19, citing more than $100 million in debt. The move came after two years of efforts by LRGH to solve its financial problems through a merger or acquisition.

The U.S. poverty rate has surged over the past five months, with 7.8 million Americans falling into poverty, the latest indication of how deeply many are struggling after government aid dwindled, the Washington Post reported. The poverty rate jumped to 11.7 percent in November, up 2.4 percentage points since June, according to new data released today by researchers at the University of Chicago and the University of Notre Dame. While overall poverty levels are low by historical standards, the increase in poverty this year has been swift. It is the biggest jump in a single year since the government began tracking poverty 60 years ago. It is nearly double the next-largest rise, which occurred in 1979-1980 during the oil crisis, according to James X. Sullivan, a professor at Notre Dame, and Bruce D. Meyer, a professor at the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy. Sullivan and Meyer created a Covid-19 Income and Poverty Dashboard to track how many Americans are falling below the poverty line during this deep recession. The federal poverty line is $26,200 for a family of four. The economists say the sharp rise in poverty is occurring for two reasons: Millions of people cannot find jobs, and government aid for the unemployed has declined sharply since the summer. The average unemployment payment was more than $900 a week from late March through the end of July, but it fell to about $300 a week in August, making it harder for the unemployed to pay their bills.

Millions of people have moved out of New York City during the pandemic, but at the same time, millions of others with lower incomes have taken their place, according to a study released on yesterday, Reuters reported. All told, a net 70,000 people left the metropolitan region this year, resulting in roughly $34 billion in lost income, according to estimates from Unacast here, a location analytics company. About 3.57 million people left New York City this year between Jan. 1 and Dec. 7, according to Unacast, which analyzed anonymized cell phone location data. Some 3.5 million people earning lower average incomes moved into the city during that same period, the report showed. “The exodus isn’t as big as people have been talking about,” said Thomas Walle, chief executive and co-founder of Unacast. “Maybe the greater impact is how the population is changing and how the demographics are changing.” In the longer run, the changing demographics could lead to more affordable brands taking the place of higher-end stores, the researchers noted. At the same time, real estate developers may need to offer more lower-priced housing options, Walle said.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers released proposed COVID-19 relief legislation that may provide momentum for breaking a months-long impasse, by separating out coronavirus liability protections and state aid — the two most contentious and partisan items, Bloomberg News reported. After Republicans and Democrats failed to come to a consensus on a liability shield for employers, the group that has been working on a bipartisan compromise released two separate legislative proposals. One is for $748 billion and includes areas of accord like vaccine funding and aid to small businesses, and the other wraps the two most contentious items, including $160 billion for regional authorities. Senator Dick Durbin, the No. 2 Democrat in that chamber and one of the negotiators, said that state and local aid and liability are both “critically” important but said that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell should allow votes on the $748 billion consensus measure in coming days. He said the aid it contains is “desperately needed.” McConnell has for days said that the two biggest roadblocks should be set aside, with lawmakers proceeding with the remainder — which includes aid for small businesses, help for the unemployed, funding for vaccine distribution and rescue money for airlines and other transportation providers. If endorsed by Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a separate vote on the $748 billion in COVID-19 relief could offer the first bipartisan backing of both houses of Congress for a stimulus bill since the spring — after months of stalemate. Pelosi and Schumer have argued that the funding for states and localities is too important to allow consideration for a more targeted bill. The bipartisan group’s $748 billion package includes $300 billion for help to small businesses, including through the Paycheck Protection Program, $180 billion for additional unemployment insurance, $45 billion for transportation including airlines and $82 billion for education. Other provisions include $25 billion for housing assistance, $16 billion for vaccine distribution and testing, and $10 billion each for child care, the U.S. Postal Service and rural broadband. Also offered is $25 billion in emergency rental aid and an extension in a moratorium on evictions to Jan. 31. Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle have warned about the potential bankruptcy of smaller enterprises across the country without a renewal of the Paycheck Protection Program. Read more.

Click here to access the bill text of the Bipartisan COVID-19 Emergency Relief Act of 2020. 

Click here for bill text of the Bipartisan State and Local Support and Small Business Protection Act of 2020. 

U.S. banks are scrambling to persuade policymakers to extend the Dec. 31 expiry of an accounting waiver that has allowed lenders to give struggling borrowers more leeway on their loans, several bankers and lobbyists said, Reuters reported. If Congress fails to extend the relief as part of a new stimulus package being discussed by lawmakers, many lenders are likely to curtail loan modification programs, they said, making life much tougher for as many as 12 million Americans whose unemployment benefits are due to expire at around the same time. “This provision has given credit unions and banks some assurance that if they work with borrowers that are having financial difficulty as a result of the pandemic, that they can work with those borrowers and not have supervisory scrutiny,” said Ryan Donovan, Chief Advocacy Officer, Credit Union National Association. “That’s going to go away.” To soften COVID-19’s economic blow, Congress in March granted a federal moratorium on mortgage repayments. To make it possible for lenders to defer those mortgages and voluntarily grant repayment holidays on credit card, auto and other loans without adverse repercussions for the borrower or lender, Congress also waived an accounting rule that usually requires modified loans to be classified as “troubled debt restructurings.”

A growing percentage of U.S. homeowners are looking to delay making mortgage payments, the latest sign that the economic recovery is hitting a snag, Bloomberg News reported. In the first week of December, the proportion of mortgage borrowers that started seeking forbearance relief rose to its highest level since August, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. And call volume at the companies that collect payments rose to the highest level since April, a sign of growing distress among homeowners, the trade group said yesterday. With long-term unemployment rates rising and COVID-19 cases surging, “it is not surprising to see more homeowners seeking relief,” Mike Fratantoni, chief economist at the MBA, said in a statement. The increasing number of homeowners that have started seeking mortgage forbearance comes even as the economy has shown signs of recovery, underscoring how uneven the turnaround is. U.S. household net worth reached a fresh record of $123.5 trillion in the third quarter, while almost 4 million workers have been unemployed for more than 27 weeks. Homeowners are delaying payments under a U.S. forbearance program that started in March and allows mortgage borrowers to take a break for as long as a year without penalty. The total percentage of loans that are in forbearance edged lower to 5.48 percent in the week ended Dec. 6, from 5.54 percent the week before. Yet the number of borrowers looking to enter forbearance rose to 0.12 percent of all the loans mortgage servicers collect payments for, the most since August, the MBA said.