In a proposal originally penned by the Treasury Department and taken up by Senate Republicans, the Trump Administration seeks passage of a nearly $1 trillion Novel Coronavirus/COVID-19 relief and economic stimulus plan that would include specific industry bailouts and payments to individuals. The White House proposal includes:

• $500 billion for payments to individual Americans, in two equal installments;
• $50 billion to bailout the airline industry;
• $150 billion for relief of “other severely distressed sectors of the US economy...”; and
• $300 billion for small business interruption loans.

Senate Democrats have outlined a competing $750 billion economic stimulus package that includes $400 billion to fund a wide array of programs (e.g., medical supplies and treatment capacity; education and child care; and expanded access to home care for senior citizens) and $350 billion of direct support to individual Americans (increased unemployment benefits; relief for student loans; and forbearance on all federally backed mortgages).

Faced with a pandemic, we expect that the negotiations to finalize and pass an economic stimulus bill will be a bipartisan effort not witnessed on Capitol Hill since President Trump took office. Despite Senators McConnell and Schumer having a long history of animosity towards each other, the circumstances presented by Novel Coronavirus/COVID-19 will likely result in fast passage of a negotiated plan that combines parts of both the White House and Democratic proposals.

The White House’s economic stimulus package proposal was preceded earlier this week by a request to Congress for approval of $45.8 billion in supplemental spending for various federal agencies involved with the government response to the pandemic, including the Veterans Health Administration ($16.6 billion), the Department of Health and Human Services ($11.5 billion), the Defense Department ($8.3 billion), and the Department of Homeland Security ($3.2 billion).