The Senate may soon test the bipartisan limits on pandemic spending as Democratic leaders prepare to bring a small-business aid package to the floor containing provisions that have independently enjoyed support from both parties.
But the collective $48 billion package faces strong headwinds in an inflation-fueled election-year environment where Republicans are loath to support any new federal spending that isn’t fully offset. That was the GOP demand on a separate $10 billion bill to appropriate more money for COVID-19 therapeutics, testing and vaccines, which has stalled amid a dispute over a pandemic-related border policy that could snag the small-business package, too.
The business aid package, led by Small Business Chair Benjamin L. Cardin, D-Md., and Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., has only $5 billion in offsets — from unspent funds in the now-lapsed Paycheck Protection Program — barely one-tenth of the total spending. That program offered small businesses forgivable loans to keep workers on the payroll during shutdowns.
