Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said on the Senate floor early March 25 (just after 1:30 a.m.) that a bipartisan agreement had been reached on a congressional bill #3 to address the coronavirus crisis, which is expected to be roughly $2 trillion. He said the Senate will pass the legislation later today.

The text of the bill has not been released yet. It is expected to be circulated later this morning and we will distribute when it is available. The Senate will reconvene at noon. At present, it is not exactly clear how the process will unfold. It could start with a vote on the procedural motion related to the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, which was rejected twice before but would now be expected to be cleared given the bipartisan agreement. That and subsequent procedural votes could be "voice voted," with the only vote where members are all present being final passage, the timing of which is currently uncertain.

That would send the bill to the House, where there is interest in moving the legislation quickly but the mechanics of how it could be passed have not been made clear.

The deal announcement capped another night of fast-paced negotiations with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Senate leaders of both parties. In his floor statement, Senator McConnell said the bipartisan bill will provide direct checks to households from the middle class on down, expand unemployment insurance, provide loans to small businesses, stabilize key industries while keeping companies accountable, invest in medicines and vaccines, and provide medical equipment to the frontlines of the crisis.

In a dear colleague letter to his members, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) provided the following insights into the deal:

• "The extended UI program in this agreement increases the maximum unemployment benefit by $600 per week and ensures that laid-off workers, on average, will receive their full pay for four months."
• "The structural reforms we have made would allow workers to get unemployment insurance quickly and would allow furloughed workers to stay on as employees."
• "A $150 billion Marshall Plan for our health care system will provide needed treatment during this pandemic."

Senator Schumer described the following as changes from the Republican version of the bill circulated March 22 (taken verbatim from the letter):

• Four months of more unemployment insurance instead of three months
• $55 billion increase in the Marshall Plan for our Health Care System
• $150 billion for a state, tribal, and local Coronavirus Relief fund
• $10 billion for SBA emergency grants of up to $10,000 to provide immediate relief for small business operating costs
• $17 billion for SBA to cover [six months of payments for small businesses with existing SBA loans
• $30 billion in emergency education funding and $25 billion in emergency transit funding
• $30 billion for the Disaster Relief Fund to provide financial assistance to state, local, tribal, and territorial governments, as well as private nonprofits providing critical and essential services
• More than $10 billion for the Indian Health Services, and other tribal programs
• Prohibit businesses controlled by the President, Vice President, Members of Congress, and heads of Executive Departments from receiving loans or investments from Treasury programs
• Make rent, mortgage and utility costs eligible for SBA loan forgiveness
• Ban stock buybacks for the term of the government assistance plus [one] year [for] any company receiving a government loan [under] the bill
• Establish robust worker protections attached to all federal loans for businesses
• Create real-time public reporting of Treasury transactions under the Act, including terms of loans, investments or other assistance to corporations
• Create of Treasury Department Special Inspector General for Pandemic Recovery to provide oversight of Treasury loans and a Pandemic Response Accountability Committee to protect taxpayer dollars
• Add a retention tax credit for employers to encourage businesses to keep workers on payroll during the crisis
• Provide [an] income tax exclusion for individuals who are receiving student loan repayment assistance from their employer
• Eliminated $3 billion bailout for big oil
• Eliminated "secret bailout" provision that would have allowed bailouts to corporations to be concealed for [six] months
• Saved hundreds of thousands of airline industry jobs and prohibited airlines from stock buybacks and CEO bonuses

———————————————