"Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell faced the Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday to answer questions about their role in managing $500 billion in funding for emergency rescue loans—it’s the first accountability hearing since the passage of the historic CARES Act in March.
US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Federal Reserve Board Chairman Jerome Powell attend a ... [+]
AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
KEY FACTS
The hearing comes the day after a Congressional oversight committee found that the Treasury Department has spent very little of a $500 billion fund designed to help businesses and local governments weather the crisis.
The Treasury has not distributed any of the $46 billion allocated to the airline or other distressed industries, for example, and very little of the other $454 billion, intended to prop up Federal Reserve lending programs, has been spent.
In his prepared remarks, Mnuchin, who is sure to face questions over his handling of the embattled Paycheck Protection Program, emphasized the Treasury’s spending so far: “we have committed up to $195 billion in credit support under the CARES Act,” he said, and added that he is fully prepared to allocate all of that $500 billion.
Mnuchin also addressed the issue of the Treasury Department taking on a certain level of risk in backstopping loans: “We are fully prepared to take losses” in certain scenarios, he said. . . "
