Politics

Phase 3: What The White House Wants In The Next Coronavirus Stimulus — And When It Will Happen

Christian Datoc Senior White House Correspondent
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U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin told Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo on Thursday that the next phase of the White House’s coronavirus stimulus plan contains three main components and explained the timing for payouts to American families.

  1. $300 billion in loans to small businesses
  2. $500 billion in direct payments to American families
  3. $200 billion in “secured lending” for critical industries

“This is not going on forever. We are going to beat this. While doing that, we understand that there are impacts on hardworking Americans, and the president is determined that we are going to support them,” Mnuchin explained before detailing the $1 trillion plan.

“The first part of this is $300 billion that goes to small businesses. That money needs to be used hiring people, keeping people on payroll and if they do there will be loan forgiveness on that afterward,” he stated. “That’s 40% of the private workforce, and we want to keep those people employed.” (RELATED: Here’s What Every State In America Is Doing To Combat The Spread Of The Coronavirus)

Mnuchin reportedly told Republican senators earlier in the week that, in a worst case coronavirus scenario, the United States could be facing 20% unemployment. He explained Thursday that the “second component” — direct payments to American families — will be conducted via direct deposit in two separate “tranches.”

“The first one would be $1,000 per person, $500 per child, so for a family of four, that’s a $3,000 dollar payment.”

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He claimed that “as soon as Congress passes this we get this out in three weeks, and then six weeks later if the president still has a national emergency we will deliver another $3,000 dollars. So that is a lot of money to hardworking Americans who are at home no fault of theirs.”

Mnuchin stated the “third component is $200 billion that we can use for more facilities with the Fed like we’ve been doing, for secured lending to airlines and for other critical industries.” (RELATED: Trump Invokes Defense Protection Act As Coronavirus Ravages Economy)

Now that President Donald Trump has signed Phase 2 of the coronavirus stimulus into law, Mnuchin, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer will resume negotiations on the third phase of economic relief.

WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 18: U.S. President Donald Trump speaks as Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert Wilkie, Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Seema Verma, and Vice President Mike Pence listen during a news briefing on the latest development of the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S. at the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House March 18, 2020 in Washington, DC. President Trump announced on Twitter that the U.S. and Canada will close their border to non-essential traffic to try and stop the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks on the latest development of the coronavirus outbreak(Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Several lawmakers, including Republican Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, Republican Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley and Democratic Massachusetts Rep. Joe Kennedy, have all floated additional propositions for direct payments to American families. Former 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang, whose signature platform was a Universal Basic Income, praised the White House’s move to offer direct economic relief to Americans.

“This is exactly what Universal Basic Income is designed to do — offer a way to ensure that Americans can make ends meet when they need it most,” he said in a statement. “I look forward to monitoring the developments of the White House as they consider methods of distribution, and both me and my team are eager to offer our support to ensure this process runs as smoothly as possible.”