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The swift arrival of a new coronavirus variant has rekindled economic anxieties in Washington, D.C., as congressional lawmakers, business leaders and consumer advocates begin to worry whether there is enough federal aid to shield Americans from another round of financial despair, the Washington Post reported. Over the course of the nearly two-year pandemic, Congress has committed nearly $6 trillion toward combating the contagion and bringing a battered economy back from the brink. But some of the most significant programs to keep businesses afloat and help households pay bills have expired or run out of funds, raising new risks for the future of the country’s recovery, particularly as the omicron variant wave begins to take hold. There’s no federal money left to keep restaurants open. The aid for concert halls and other customer-starved performance spaces has nearly gone dry. Federal officials ended their primary effort that pumped money into small businesses with sagging balance sheets, and they stopped paying out extra sums to workers who are out of a job. Federal student loan protections are expiring imminently, meaning students’ bills are set to come due early next year. A stimulus initiative under President Biden that provided monthly payments to more than 35 million families with children may have issued its last round of deposits this past Wednesday. And attempts to extend those tax benefits — or address a wider array of longer-term financial issues facing parents — have stalled again on Capitol Hill. “I’m concerned that you’re going to have many, many vulnerable Americans, Americans with young children for example, falling between the cracks,” said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), adding: “January looks like a tough month with respect to omicron.”

The chief executives of American Airlines, United Airlines and Southwest Airlines will testify on Dec. 15 at an oversight hearing before the Senate Commerce Committee on the impact of $54 billion in COVID-19 government payroll support for U.S. airlines, Reuters reported. The hearing will look at "the effect on the airline industry’s workforce, and the effect of airline operational performance on American consumers," according to a committee statement. American CEO Doug Parker and Southwest CEO Gary Kelly, who are both stepping down in early 2022, will testify, as will United CEO Scott Kirby. Delta Air Lines Chief Operating Officer John Laughter also will testify, as will Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA. Lawmakers are expected to quiz executives about how carriers used pandemic-related federal aid, staffing issues and other matters. U.S. airlines and carriers around the world were hard hit by reduced business and tourist travel during the COVID-19 pandemic. Starting in March 2020, Congress approved three rounds of taxpayer bailouts totaling $54 billion to cover much of U.S. airline payroll costs through Sept. 30 of this year as a result of the pandemic.

The main trucking lobbies in Canada and the United States are warning that vaccine and testing requirements for workers will further disrupt supply chains because there is already a dire shortage of drivers, Reuters reported. Canada will require vaccines for truck drivers starting in January, while the Biden administration has issued rules requiring truck drivers at companies with 100 or more employees to be vaccinated or submit to weekly testing. More than two-thirds of goods traded between Canada and the United States travels on roads and highways. For most of the pandemic, truckers crossed the border regularly as they were considered essential workers to keep supply chains flowing. "We know that there already is disruption in the supply chain; this is going to intensify it," said Stephen Laskowski, president and chief executive of the Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA), which represents some 4,500 carriers. It estimates that 10-20%, or between 12,000-22,000 of Canadian truck drivers, and 40%, or some 16,000 of U.S. truck drivers traveling into Canada would be sidelined if the requirement begins. "This is not a trucking issue. This is a Canada-U.S. economic issue," Laskowski told Reuters, adding about 70% of that C$650 billion ($507 billion) U.S.-Canada trade moves by truck. The American Trucking Associations (ATA), together with others, is seeking to block U.S. President Joe Biden's vaccine mandate in court. A U.S. appeals court issued a temporary stay last month blocking the requirements. The court found "all else equal, a 28 year-old trucker spending the bulk of his workday in the solitude of his cab is simply less vulnerable to COVID-19 than a 62-year-old prison janitor." The Justice Department has asked another court to throw out the temporary stay, and a decision could come as soon as mid-December.

America’s unemployment rate tumbled last month to its lowest point since the pandemic struck, even as employers appeared to slow their hiring — a mixed picture that pointed to a resilient economy that’s putting more people to work, the Associated Press reported. The government reported on Friday that businesses and other employers added just 210,000 jobs in November, the weakest monthly gain in nearly a year and less than half of October’s increase of 546,000. But other data from the Labor Department’s report painted a brighter picture. The unemployment rate plummeted from 4.6% to 4.2% as a substantial 1.1 million Americans said they found jobs last month. The U.S. economy still remains under threat from a spike in inflation, shortages of labor and supplies and the potential impact of the omicron variant of the coronavirus. But for now, Americans are spending freely, and the economy is forecast to expand at a 7% annual rate in the final three months of the year, a sharp rebound from the 2.1% pace in the previous quarter, when the delta variant hobbled growth.