On The Money: Small business lending funds nearly depleted | Trump says White House to release guidelines on relaxing social distancing Thursday | Fed’s efforts on coronavirus raise eyebrows

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THE BIG DEAL–Small business lending funds nearly depleted in coronavirus relief program: Funding for a popular loan program to help small business stay afloat during the coronavirus pandemic is nearing depletion and could be exhausted by the end of Wednesday or midday Thursday.

The Small Business Administration (SBA) has helped issue 1.3 million loans totaling $305 billion through the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) as of Wednesday evening, putting the program on track to hit its $349 billion limit before Friday, with loans averaging almost $240,000 each.

• The lending facility was implemented as part of the $2.2 trillion coronavirus relief package President Trump signed into law March 27.
• After a flood of applications overwhelmed banks and credit unions across the U.S., industry advocates have urged Congress to quickly replenish PPP funding before another backlog of applications piles up.

The Hill’s Alexander Bolton and I have more here.

Administration officials and congressional leaders are scrambling to add more funding: 

• Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer (N.Y.) and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin spoke again Wednesday in hopes of reaching a deal to provide an additional $250 billion for the program, as well as at least $250 billion for hospitals and state governments.
• Senate and House Democratic staff were scheduled to speak with Treasury officials later in the day.
• Democrats say a deal must set aside SBA loans for women- and minority-owned businesses in underserved urban, rural and tribal communities.

Industry calls for quick action: Richard Hunt, president of the Consumer Bankers Association, told reporters during a Wednesday call that lenders would need roughly $1 trillion to satisfy demand for PPP loans.

Hunt also argued that efforts to steer funding toward specific communities and demographics could “slow down” the rescue lending program to the peril of small businesses.

“Lenders, banks should not be given preferential treatment, depending on their asset size or the communities they serve,” he said. “We need speed. So if Congress would just pass what we call a clean bill so we can get more money out to small businesses. that would be ideal.”

LEADING THE DAY

Trump says White House to release guidelines on relaxing social distancing on Thursday: The White House plans to release guidelines on Thursday to inform states on how to relax coronavirus restrictions and reopen businesses.

President Trump announced the plans during a news conference on Wednesday, citing data indicating that the United States has passed the peak of COVID-19 cases nationwide.

The decision on what individual states do, however, will be with the governors across the country.

“The battle continues but the data suggests that nationwide we have passed the peak on new cases,” Trump said at a news conference in the White House Rose Garden.

“These encouraging developments have put us in a very strong position to finalize guidelines on states for reopening the country,” the president continued, adding that the White House would outline the guidelines during a news conference Thursday afternoon.

• Trump asserted earlier this week that he had ultimate authority to decide when to open up states, though legal experts, governors and lawmakers swiftly disputed the assertion.
• But he pulled back during a press briefing on Tuesday evening, saying he would be speaking to governors and “authorizing” them to implement plans to reopen. 

The Hill’s Morgan Chalfant tells us where we stand now.

Trump’s shift comes as some Republican senators are calling to quickly reopen parts of the economy shuttered by the coronavirus pandemic, but are warning that it won’t be an instantaneous return to normal.

• Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) on Wednesday warned that the country reopening would likely mirror how restrictions and stay-at-home orders went into place: by location and a piecemeal lifting of social distancing measures.
• Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) told a local TV station that it is “time for Texans to go back to work,” but he noted that the same guidelines for states like Texas did not make sense, for example, in New York City — the epicenter of the outbreak in the U.S.
• “Now is the time to begin the discussion on how we slowly, gradually reopen our economy, because we are doing enormous damage every week that goes by where people are not allowed to work,” Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) told WPXI, a Pittsburgh TV station.

Even so, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) warned on Wednesday that without an increase in coronavirus testing it would be difficult to start reopening the country.

“Without more tests with quick results, it will be difficult to contain this disease and give Americans confidence to go back to work and back to school,” Alexander, who chairs the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said in a statement.

The Hill’s Jordain Carney has more here.

Federal Reserve’s efforts on coronavirus raise eyebrows: The Federal Reserve is pumping unrivaled levels of economic aid across the U.S., blowing through old taboos with trillions in rescue loans and bond purchases to buoy the American economy through the coronavirus pandemic.

Faced with a once-in-a-century economic crisis, the Fed under Chairman Jerome Powell has pledged to flood the U.S. with as much rescue lending and bond purchases as its legal charter allows and the economy requires.

While the Fed was criticized for its efforts to prop up banks a decade ago, few have questioned the necessity of its recent sprint to stop an economic collapse.

Even so, the unrivaled scale and breakneck speed of the Fed’s latest intervention have raised concerns about who may still get left behind and how much the rest of Washington should depend on the Fed’s last-resort loans. I explain why here.

GOOD TO KNOW

• Stocks closed with losses Wednesday amid a flurry of bad economic news.
• The Trump administration on Wednesday announced that Supplemental Security Income (SSI) recipients will automatically receive their coronavirus rebates, expanding the number of people who will not need to file a tax return in order to get their payment.
• U.S. farmers will lose an estimated $20 billion this year as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, according to a report from the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute at the University of Missouri.
• More than 40 Democratic lawmakers are arguing that fossil fuel companies should not be able to receive any assistance under the coronavirus relief package passed by Congress last month. 
• International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said Wednesday that half of all countries have already requested emergency relief due to the economic havoc wrought by the coronavirus pandemic.
• Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Wednesday blasted President Trump’s decision to have his name printed on the stimulus checks that will be mailed out to individual Americans as the coronavirus pandemic rattles the economy.

ODDS AND ENDS

• Consumers are reacting more intensely to the COVID-19 pandemic than they did to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, or the global financial crisis in 2009, according to a survey from the Sports and Leisure Research Group, Engagious and ROKK Solutions.