Steven Mnuchin: Congress close on coronavirus stimulus deal

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Sunday said the administration and Congress are close to a massive stimulus deal to rescue the American economy from the coronavirus.

“I think we have a fundamental understanding and I look forward to wrapping it up today,” Mr. Mnuchin told Fox News Sunday.

The package is expected to inject nearly $2 trillion into the U.S. economy.

It includes small business “retention loans,” meaning firms will get two weeks of cash flow to pay and retain workers so the economy is up and running when the virus is defeated.

“If you do that, those loans will be forgiven,” Mr. Mnuchin said.

The plan also calls for direct payments to Americans. The average family of four would get a direct deposit of $3,000 as a “bridge for them to get through this quickly.”

Third, it enhances unemployment insurance for people who’ve been laid off due to the coronavirus. And finally, the plan calls on the Federal Reserve to offer $4 trillion in liquidity to prop up the economy through broad lending programs.

“I think we are injecting a lot of liquidity into the system,” Mr. Mnuchin said. “And hard-working Americans know that the president wants to protect them.”

The plan also calls for about $110 billion to support hospitals on the front lines of the battle.

The coronavirus was discovered in Wuhan, China, in December. It’s infected over 300,000 people worldwide, resulting in over 13,000 deaths.

The U.S. has seen nearly 27,000 infections and about 350 deaths, prompting governors to place severe limits on commerce so that people stay apart and break lines of transmission.

Those limits have led to massive layoffs and fears that many businesses will not survive the crisis.

If the fight against the virus hasn’t been won 10 weeks from now, Mr. Mnuchin said, “we’ll go back to Congress again.”

“I think we are injecting a lot of liquidity into the system,” he said. “And hard-working Americans know that the president wants to protect them.”