As of early March 23, Senate leaders and the Administration had not been able to announce agreement on a congressional bill #3 to address the coronavirus crisis. The Senate is scheduled to reconvene at noon and re-vote the procedural motion (cloture to limit debate on the motion to proceed) that failed the evening of March 22. (The chamber could act earlier by consent if there is a breakthrough.)

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) left the Capitol after midnight saying he was "more optimistic than I was this morning that we will get something done" (according to a Politico reporter) ahead of an expected meeting at 9:00 this morning with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. Just before midnight, Senator Schumer objected to the Senate reconvening at 9:00 a.m. and said hopefully there would be agreement by the noon session. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said the delay could cause markets to be rattled by longer congressional inaction.

Senator McConnell earlier criticized Democrats for "voting to filibuster the bipartisan package that they helped craft" in nonstop negotiations over the previous days, saying "Democratic ideas were incorporated, major changes were made at their request." A revised version of the Senate Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act was released early March 22 and among first signs of trouble was a meeting between Senators McConnell and Schumer and House leaders that ended without agreement. Following the meeting, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said, "We'll be introducing our own bill." The revised CARES Act subsequently failed to overcome the Senate procedural hurdle in a vote of 47-47, with the number of Republicans able to vote reduced by five due to the virus and self-quarantining, which added to the tension.

The Washington Post reported that a "major sticking point is a $500 billion pool of money for loans and loan guarantees that Republicans want to create" for corporations. Democrats were calling the proposal a "slush fund," and suggesting the proposal would provide Treasury with unchecked authority without sufficient transparency or worker protections (the proposal did reportedly include buyback and executive compensation limitations).

The Wall Street Journal reported that, "The sticking points included the size of proposed cash payments to taxpayers, details on expanding unemployment assistance and what aid to give state governments, hospitals and major U.S. industries."

There has been little additional reporting on any decisions made about business tax proposals, though, as Politico reported, "the bill's tax provisions don't seem to be the issue." It is uncertain what exactly will be included in a final tax package, and members were expressing the longtime congressional adage that nothing is agreed to until everything is agreed to. The latest public revision of the CARES Act retained provisions including rollbacks of TCJA limitations on net operating losses (NOLs) and the business interest limitation under IRC Section 163(j), and a TCJA fix on qualified improvement property (QIP).

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