Law markers consider another $1T coronavirus rescue package

Yahoo Finance Video
Updated

White House and Congressional officials shared with Wall Street executives that the next round of coronavirus stimulus relief could add another 1.5 trillion dollars. Yahoo Finance’s Jessica Smith breaks down the latest developments on COVID-19.

Video Transcript

- But right now we have to talk about coronavirus-- Worldwide cases over 1,360,000, USA, almost 370,000 in the United States. We have lost almost 11,000 souls. Jeff Smith is our correspondent in Washington D.C. She's got the latest for us on D.C.'s reaction and the potential for another trillion dollar stimulus package. Jes.

JESSICA SMITH: Yeah, Adam. There seems to be an understanding that more help will be needed to deal with this crisis. Larry Kudlow said this morning that we'll see where we are in the next few weeks when it comes to this next phase of relief. Of course, lawmakers won't be back to Washington until April 20 at the earliest.

So this isn't something that's going to happen tomorrow, but lawmakers are beginning to work on what this next phase might look like. Speaker Pelosi had initially said that phase four would focus on recovery. It could be an infrastructure package. But in recent days, she has shifted to say we're going to need to double down on the CARES Act, maybe do a CARES II package, as she called it.

She was saying that the first relief there was a down payment, and they're going to have to do more. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer over in the Senate has unveiled legislation today that would boost pay for frontline workers. So you can expect some of that to be part of the debate as they look forward to phase four.

President Trump did say yesterday that there could be another round of direct relief to Americans. He says that is something that is under consideration. And Republican lawmakers, democratic lawmakers, and Trump administration officials have said that they would be willing to go ask for more money for small businesses if that is a need that they see over the next few weeks.

It seems that that is likely going to be a need. And we know the president, as you mentioned, is meeting at 3:00 PM to talk about this small business relief program. So we'll be looking for any updates on that this afternoon.