Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he plans to use all of the $500 billion that Congress provided to help the economy through direct lending from his agency and by backstopping Federal Reserve lending programs.
Mnuchin said he has pledged to use $195 billion of those funds so far, and will use the rest after determining how best to deploy the money to help losses associated with the coronavirus pandemic. “I expect to allocate all the capital as needed as was given to us," Mnuchin said Tuesday during a Senate Banking Committee hearing held online. “We are fully prepared to take losses in certain scenarios on that capital." Mnuchin’s plans to exhaust the funds underscore the depth of the crisis faced by the U.S.