Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Tuesday that legislators will vote for additional funding for small businesses affected by the coronavirus outbreak on Thursday.
“I will work with [Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin] and [Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.,] and hope to approve further funding for the Paycheck Protection Program by unanimous consent or voice vote during the next scheduled Senate session on Thursday,” McConnell said in a statement, according to CNBC.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., the chair of the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee, confirmed the news in a tweet earlier on Tuesday.
“Good news on [the Paycheck Protection Program]. [McConnell] is working with [Schumer] & hopes to approve additional funding by voice vote during the Senate’s pro forma session this week on Thursday 9 April. We will need at least another $200-$250 billion for [the program],” Rubio tweeted.
Schumer and Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., the ranking member of the Senate Small Business Committee, said in a statement to CNBC that Schumer has not heard from McConnell and Cardin has not heard from Rubio.
The Democratic senators said in a release on Thursday: “Without proactive and sustained outreach, we can expect that underserved communities will be disproportionately harmed – just as they were during the Great Recession when minority business enterprises suffered a precipitous decline in the proportion of SBA-backed loan approvals.”
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.