Congress and the administration hope to close a deal as early as Monday to replenish funds for a loan helping distressed small businesses survive the coronavirus pandemic. The $450 billion deal would also provide additional funds for hospitals and testing.
Since a new loan program intended to help small businesses ran out of money on Thursday, lawmakers and the administration have struggled to break an impasse over the funds, after Democrats insisted on coupling the infusion to the program with other provisions to counter the impact of the pandemic.
“We do need to provide more funding for the program, there’s no doubt about that,” said Senator Jeanne Shaheen, Democrat of New Hampshire and one of the main architects of the program. “But we also need to address some of the things in the program that are not working the way we intended.”
Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, on CNN on Sunday gave broad outlines of a final package: $300 billion to replenish the emergency fund, called the Paycheck Protection Program; $50 billion for the Small Business Administration’s disaster relief fund; $75 billion for hospitals and $25 billion for testing.
Mr. Mnuchin and Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, told Republican senators in a conference call Sunday afternoon that they would not include additional aid for state and local governments — one of Democrats’ demands for the interim package — and President Trump told reporters “that will be in our next negotiation.”
In a separate television appearance on Sunday morning, Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the minority leader, suggested negotiations were going well.
“We’ve made very good progress, and I’m very hopeful we could come to an agreement tonight or early tomorrow morning,” Mr. Schumer said, appearing shortly after Mr. Mnuchin on the CNN show “State of the Union.” Mr. Schumer said the White House was “going along with” some of the Democrats’ requests, “so we feel pretty good.”
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