Washington (AFP)

The United States Senate unanimously adopted a nearly $ 500 billion plan on Tuesday to support SMEs hard hit by the Covid-19 crisis, help hospitals and strengthen coronavirus testing.

Supported by Donald Trump, this text includes an envelope of $ 320 billion which will be disbursed in the form of loans to companies with less than 500 employees.

It also includes 75 billion aid for hospitals, 25 billion for coronavirus screening, as well as 60 billion in loans intended for other sectors impacted by the economy, notably in agriculture.

The plan is expected to be subject to a final vote in the House of Representatives later this week before being promulgated by the President.

These new funds will be added to the 349 billion already spent to finance loans for SMEs, which had been approved in late March as part of a historic plan of 2,000 billion dollars to support the US economy.

The loans are granted to SMEs by banks but the federal government guarantees them, by committing to cancel the debt if the beneficiary company retains its employees or rehires those who were laid off by June 30.

The House of Representatives cannot opt ​​for a unanimous vote because elected officials have threatened to oppose it. It will therefore have to recall its parliamentarians to Washington, probably as early as Thursday, the leader of the Democratic majority, Steny Hoyer, said on Tuesday.

He said he was confident that a majority of the 429 elected officials could be present, enough to authorize this vote, which could however take several hours because of precautionary measures to prevent the spread of the virus. Parliamentarians could thus enter the hemicycle in small groups.

The plan was approved unanimously by a handful of senators, some wearing masks in the halls of Congress, to avoid recalling all elected officials in the midst of a pandemic.

- New large plan in sight -

Once this new aid to SMEs is finally adopted, parliamentarians want to start negotiating a new broad plan to support the American economy.

Donald Trump detailed, in a tweet Tuesday, some of his main priorities for this next component: "budget cuts for states / local authorities", investments "in infrastructure", "tax assistance" intended for the sectors of catering, entertainment and sports, as well as "reductions in payroll costs to increase economic growth".

Democratic congressional leaders said on Tuesday that the new aid package should be "sweeping" and bring about "far-reaching change".

Nicknamed "Cares 2", he "will have to recognize that the key to getting Americans back to work and ensuring economic security will be to put the health and safety of Americans first and to defeat this terrible virus," wrote the Democratic President. of the House Nancy Pelosi and the leader of the Democratic minority in the Senate, Chuck Schumer,

The first part of aid to SMEs was criticized because large companies were able to benefit from it while small companies and organizations were not selected.

To try this time to improve access to loans from small structures, which sometimes do not have such close relations with the big banks, $ 60 billion this time will be distributed exclusively by small banks.

More than 1.6 million companies have already reached funds, according to figures from the Trump administration.

© 2020 AFP