The top Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill said Tuesday they reached a deal with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to add $310 billion to the Paycheck Protection Program, a small-business loan program that ran out of funding last week after being deluged with applications. A separate program, the Economic Injury Disaster Loan fund, aimed at quickly delivering a mix of grants and loans, will get $60 billion in the legislation.
The agreement will also include $75 billion in assistance for hospitals and $25 billion to expand testing for the virus across the country, according to aides.
“I welcome this bipartisan agreement and hope the Senate will quickly pass it once members have reviewed the final text,” Mr. McConnell said Tuesday afternoon.
“Congressional Democrats are proud to have secured an agreement on an interim emergency funding package,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) in a joint statement.
If the Senate passes the bill, it would then go to the House, which is expected to vote on it Thursday.
In tweets Tuesday, President Trump urged the House and Senate to pass the bill, saying he was looking forward to another package that would tackle aid for state and local governments, infrastructure spending, support for the entertainment industry, and other matters.
The deal’s unveiling ended a bitter but relatively brief fight over the popular small-business aid program, known as the PPP. Both parties had wanted to replenish the fund, but sparred over what else should be attached to it. Republicans had initially pressed to pass only an influx of money for the small-business program, but later agreed to include funds for hospitals and testing as the need for both became increasingly apparent, according to congressional aides.
The agreement didn’t include additional funds for food stamps or state and local governments, which Democrats had pressed for. But Mr. Schumer said the bill would give states and local governments more flexibility to use aid from prior relief bills to make up for revenues they are losing because of the virus and its economic toll.
The $25 billion in funds for manufacturing and purchasing tests will provide $11 billion to states and localities to administer tests and conduct contact tracing. Up to $1 billion can be used to cover costs for testing people without health insurance, while $1 billion will go toward the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for surveillance measures, including contact tracing.
The bill also requires the federal government to develop a national testing plan, a Democratic demand that the Trump administration had resisted.
Hospitals and health-care providers will receive $75 billion in aid under the legislation to help them cover revenue shortfalls and fund response to the pandemic. That funding builds on the $100 billion in the $2.2 trillion relief bill passed last month provided for health care providers.
Mr. Schumer said he and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) spoke with Mr. Mnuchin and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows on the phone early Tuesday and “came to an agreement on just about every issue,” including a late dispute over the money for coronavirus testing.
A senior administration official confirmed that Mr. Meadows was part of late-night talks and said the administration was “optimistic a deal is close.”
Mr. Schumer said the agreement would include a national strategy for testing with “significant federal involvement,” while noting that Democrats agreed that governors would work in partnership with the administration.
How to structure the testing funds had bogged down negotiations on Monday. Democrats had pushed to attach the funds to a strategic plan that would put the federal government at the center. For example, the government would decide how to equitably divide resources and supplies among states with different needs and existing funds, a Democratic aide said Monday afternoon.
But the Trump administration wanted states to take the lead on testing, arguing that local governments are better judges of what steps are necessary to respond to the pandemic. Mr. Schumer suggested the issue has been resolved.
“You need a national strategy and the president and Mnuchin and Meadows agreed to that, to their credit, and it will be in the proposal,” Mr. Schumer said Tuesday morning. “We’re not going to be able to open up America unless we have a national testing strategy and the states tied into that.”