April 17, 2020 — The top House Republican said he would support adding money for hospitals to funding for a popular small-business aid program, pointing the way to a potential breakthrough in stalled talks with Democrats on the current round of stimulus spending.
In an interview, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.) said he would pair hospital funding with an additional $250 billion for the Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP, a small-business loan program that exhausted its initial $350 billion allocation money on Thursday.
Both Democrats and Republicans want to add funding to the small-business aid program, but have been sparring for days over the makeup of that aid and what else to include in the response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Democrats want to expand access to the loans as well as include more money for hospitals, food assistance and state and local governments. Republicans, meanwhile, had said they want to keep the bill focused on increasing small-business aid and defer other funding debates until broader legislation is crafted.