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Lawmakers say they are close to an agreement to provide billions in new coronavirus relief, set to be tied to a massive government funding bill, The Hill reported. Congress is expected to include at least $15 billion in response to the Biden administration's request for new funding for COVID-19 vaccines, treatments and testing. Getting a deal on the funds would remove a significant hurdle for passing a government funding bill by Friday night, when lawmakers have to pass legislation or spark a shutdown. Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), who has been involved in drafting the bill, said that they were drafting it to include $15 billion. But that number isn’t locked in, with leadership debating adding more money. Sen. John Thune (S.D.), the No. 2 Senate Republican, appeared skeptical that it would balloon to $22.5 billion, noting that it wasn’t currently “trending” in that direction. “I don’t think the number is going to get that high, but then it could,” he said. Republicans had balked last week over the administration’s request for $22.5 billion, which Democrats had wanted to be emergency spending, meaning it wouldn’t have to be paid for. But lawmakers and two leadership aides told The Hill on Monday that they had reached an agreement for the coronavirus funding to be paid for. Thune pointed to unspent state and local government funds that were included in previous coronavirus relief measures as a source for much of the new money in the omnibus bill.

The House Financial Services Committee will hold a hearing today titled "The Inflation Equation: Corporate Profiteering, Supply Chain Bottlenecks, and COVID-19." To view the witness list and access a link to the live webcast of the hearing, please click here.

U.S. consumer borrowing rose in January at the slowest pace in a year as households paid down credit-card balances that swelled during the holiday-shopping season, Bloomberg News reported. Total credit increased $6.8 billion from the prior month after a revised $22.4 billion gain in December, Federal Reserve figures showed Monday. On an annualized basis, borrowing rose 1.9%. Revolving credit outstanding, which includes credit cards, fell $218.7 million, the first decline since April. Two months earlier, revolving credit jumped a record $21 billion. Non-revolving credit, which includes auto and school loans, rose $7.1 billion.

Publicly traded real-estate investors in the U.S. enjoyed a record-breaking year for mergers in 2021, but the war in Ukraine and soaring inflation threaten to slow that deal making in the second half of the year, the Wall Street Journal reported. Real-estate investment trust mergers and acquisitions as well as stock mergers totaled $140 billion last year, an all-time high, according to Jones Lang LaSalle, a professional services company specializing in commercial real estate. Activity was powered by pent-up demand and real estate’s strong performance across most sectors, said Sheheryar Hafeez, managing director for capital markets at JLL. Larger deals helped drive the big overall volume number last year, with the average transaction size reaching $7 billion in 2021, compared with the average deal size of $3.6 billion over the prior decade, according to JLL. In one larger-than-average transaction, Vici Properties Inc. agreed to buy MGM Growth Properties in a $17.2 billion deal, including debt. Blackstone Inc. and Starwood Capital Group acquired hotel owner and operator Extended Stay America Inc. for $6 billion, the biggest lodging transaction last year.

Two years after adopting some of the strictest COVID-19 measures of any U.S. jurisdiction, Puerto Rico is eliminating most of its restrictions amid falling infection rates and an aggressive vaccine campaign, Bloomberg News reported. Masks will no longer be required outdoors or indoors except in hospitals and at nursing homes, Governor Pedro Pierluisi said during a press conference Monday. In addition, all occupancy restrictions — including those on restaurants, bars and theaters — will be dropped. Events of 1,000 people or more, however, will still be required to follow special guidelines. Visitors from the U.S. mainland will no longer have to fill out a health declaration form upon arrival. The U.S. territory of 3.3 million took aggressive steps to stop the spread of COVID-19, imposing curfews, shuttering bars and restaurants, and adopting strict masking policies in March, 2020, before most U.S. states. Health Secretary Carlos Mellado said 83% of the population has been vaccinated, 53% has had a booster shot and that — between the vaccinated and those who have recovered from COVID-19 — a full 91% of the population has antibodies to the virus. Even so, Pierluisi warned that “the pandemic is not over” and that he would reimpose restrictions if officials detect a rise in cases.

The U.S. added 678,000 jobs and the unemployment rate dropped to 3.8 percent in February, according to data released Friday by the Labor Department, The Hill reported. Unprecedented demand for workers and resilient consumer spending helped power another strong month of job growth in February. Economists expected the U.S. to add roughly 400,000 jobs last month, far less than the actual haul in the February jobs report, and push the jobless rate to 3.9 percent. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) said the U.S. saw “widespread” job growth in February led by a surge in service sector hiring — a promising sign for industries still recovering from the onset of the pandemic. Leisure and hospitality employment rose by 179,000 jobs in February, led by a gain of 124,000 jobs in restaurants and bars. Professional and business services added 95,000 jobs, the health care sector added 64,000 jobs and construction employment rose by 60,000 after staying flat in January. Transportation and warehousing employment rose by 48,000 in February, and retail trade employment rose by 37,000. The BLS also revised the December and January job gains up by a combined 92,000 jobs.

Ann Taylor’s former owner has obtained bankruptcy court approval for its revised reorganization plan after a judge rejected certain legal protections for people and entities connected to the company contained in an earlier version of the plan, Reuters reported. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Frank Santoro of the Eastern District of Virginia signed off on Mahwah Bergen Retail Group Inc.’s amended plan during a brief hearing on Thursday. Mahwah, formerly known as Ascena Retail Group, had secured approval of its prior plan last year but was forced to return to bankruptcy court in January after the plan's so-called nondebtor releases that would have shielded non-bankrupt individuals and entities from future litigation were voided on appeal. Ascena filed for chapter 11 protection in July 2020 with more than $1 billion in debt, part of the wave of retail bankruptcies that occurred in the first few months after the COVID-19 pandemic hit the U.S. Ascena later sold its assets, including apparel retailers such as Ann Taylor, Lane Bryant and Loft, to private equity firm Sycamore Partners. In January, U.S. District Judge David Novak of the Eastern District of Virginia held that the nondebtor releases contained in the plan were void and unenforceable. Judge Novak’s decision did not interfere with the Sycamore sale, which had already closed. In his January decision, Judge Novak called the releases “shocking” and said that the bankruptcy court that approved them had exceeded “the constitutional limits of its authority.” As a result, Mahwah, which now exists solely to wind down its estate, reworked the plan to provide that the releases "should be deemed severed from the Plan,” according to court papers.