WASHINGTON -- Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin will put $455 billion in unspent Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act funding into an account that his presumed successor, former Federal Reserve chief Janet Yellen, will need authorization from Congress to use.
Mnuchin plans to place the money into the agency's General Fund, a Treasury Department spokesman said Tuesday. That fund can be tapped only with "authority based on congressionally issued legislation," according to the Treasury Department's website.
The money includes $429 billion that Mnuchin is taking back from the Federal Reserve -- which backed some of the central bank's emergency lending facilities -- and $26 billion that the Treasury Department received for direct loans to companies. Both initiatives were created under the sweeping coronavirus aid bill that was passed earlier this year as the coronavirus pandemic inflicted economic pain on the U.S.
The move will leave Yellen with just under $80 billion available in the Treasury's Exchange Stabilization Fund, a pot of money that can be used with some discretion by the Treasury chief.
Mnuchin sent a letter to Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell last week, asking for the return of money provided to the Fed by the Treasury Department as a backstop that allowed the central bank to lend to certain markets in times of stress. The Fed publicly objected to the move but agreed to return the funds.
Mnuchin said many markets are no longer in danger of seizing up and don't need aid beyond next month, when the programs are scheduled to expire. He said the funds can be better applied to specific areas of the economy with the greatest need through congressionally approved grants.
"For companies that are impacted by covid -- such as travel, entertainment and restaurants -- they don't need more debt, they need more [Paycheck Protection Program] money, they need more grants," Mnuchin said in an interview last week.
Mnuchin isn't required to move the money into the General Fund; the coronavirus rescue package states the Treasury Department can maintain access to the money by keeping it in its Exchange Stabilization Fund until 2026.
Yet moving the unspent money will make it virtually impossible for Yellen, if confirmed by the Senate as Treasury secretary, to deploy on her own. President-elect Joe Biden's transition team last week called Mnuchin's taking back of unspent money from the Fed "deeply irresponsible."
"Biden will work with leaders across government to ensure Main Street businesses and state and local governments have the support and access to credit they need to weather this storm," spokesman Kate Bedingfield said.