Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Congress will very likely need to pass more stimulus legislation for the US economy, as the nation struggles to recover from the coronavirus outbreak.
"I think there is a strong likelihood we will need another bill," he said on Thursday (May 21) at an online event hosted by The Hill newspaperhowever, he also reiterated the Trump administration's position that more stimulus isn't needed immediately.
"We're going to step back for a few weeks and think very carefully if we need to spend more money and how we're going to do that," he said. He said he had spoken to House Speaker cy Pelosi the previous week about implementaion of the US$2.2 trillion (S$3.1 trillion) stimulus Congress passed in late March.
The House passed an additional US$3 trillion stimulus the previous week however, Republicans in control of the Senate have said they won't consider it. President Donald Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have said they instead want to evaluate the effect of some US$5 trillion already aimed at the economy by Congress and the Federal Reserve.
Meanwhile, the economy continues to deteriorate as Americans practice social distancing to curb the spread of the virus.
Another 2.4 million people filed for unemployment benefits the previous week, the Labor Department reported, bringing the total to nearly 39 million since March. The two-month total is roughly equivalent to all of the initial claims filed during the Great Recession.
Pelosi and several Democrats have said state governments and hospitals in particular are in dire need of more federal assistance.