December 20, 2020

Lawmakers reach compromise (Covid Bill includes UI) over GOP proposal to rein in Fed's powers...WAP0

https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2020/12/19/stimulus-talks-race-against-government-shutddown-deadline/

By
Mike DeBonis,
Jeff Stein and
Rachel Siegel
Dec. 20, 2020 at 1:03 a.m. EST


"Senior lawmakers resolved a major standoff late Saturday night clearing the way for Congress to pass a nearly $1 trillion economic relief package, after Democratic leaders and Sen. Patrick J. Toomey (R-Pa.) struck a compromise over his proposal to rein in the lending powers of the Federal Reserve.

Toomey had created a major impasse last week by demanding new limits on the central bank’s emergency lending authority. His proposal, supported by Republican leadership, threatened the delicate negotiations over the relief package. But after hours of frenzied negotiations and meetings in the Capitol, a compromise between Toomey and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) was brokered around 9:30 p.m., aides in both parties said.

The revised language bars the Federal Reserve from creating precise copies of the lending programs created through the $2 trillion Cares Act passed by Congress. It affirmatively shuts down as of Jan. 1 those programs, which were seeded with a $500 billion appropriation by Congress in March. As congressional negotiators have discussed for weeks, the $429 billion in unspent funds will be redirected to other programs in the new $900 billion bill."