Rachel Bovard, senior director of policy at the Conservative Partnership Institute, called for greater oversight of how the U.S. Treasury and Secretary Steven Mnuchin implement part of the $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus bill.
Bovard added the bill, which was passed by the House on Friday and is expected to be signed by President Trump later, favors corporate interests over workers.
“We just made Steven Mnuchin the most powerful treasury secretary in modern history, maybe in all of history,” she said. “This is a guy who is now running a jobs program who has never created a job in his life.”
“I think there’s going to need to be a lot of oversight done for where this money goes, but again I think it just shows you the corporatism inherit within the Republican party and a lot of the establishment Democrats as well; it wins out every time against the American workers and families, and it just did again,” she said.
As part of the bill, the Treasury Department will manage a $500 billion fund intended to dole out loans and loan guarantees to companies. Democrats pushed for some restrictions on the aid, including appointing an inspector general to provide oversight.
The bill also provides an extra $600 a week in unemployment benefits for four months.
Mnuchin came under fire after telling CNBC in an interview on Thursday that the jobless numbers “right now are not relevant” because the government was now providing relief.
Data on Thursday showed weekly unemployment claims surging to a record of above 3 million.
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