Mnuchin To Put $455B In COVID Relief Funding Into An Account That Successor Cannot Easily Gain Access To

Bloomberg News reports:

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin will put $455 billion in unspent Cares Act funding into an account that his presumed successor, former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, will need authorization from Congress to use. Mnuchin plans to place the money into the agency’s General Fund, a Treasury Department spokesperson said Tuesday. That fund can only be tapped with “authority based on congressionally issued legislation,” according to the Treasury’s website.

The money includes $429 billion that Mnuchin is clawing back from the Federal Reserve — which backed some of the central bank’s emergency lending facilities — and $26 billion that Treasury received for direct loans to companies. Both initiatives were created under the sweeping Cares Act that was passed earlier this year as the coronavirus pandemic inflicted economic pain on the U.S.

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NEW: Mnuchin will place the $455b in unspent Cares Act money he is taking back from the Fed into Treasury’s General Fund, where his successor (Yellen) essentially cannot reach it w/o Congressional approvalhttps://t.co/1TQU8FEAAS

— Saleha Mohsin (@SalehaMohsin) November 24, 2020