Today there's been a major development that could lead to Congress increasing funding for the Payroll Protection Program that was part of the CARES Act.  With reports of huge demand  there is growing concern that  lenders will blow through the $350 billion in funding and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell suggested that Congress act quickly to increase the appropriations. 

The U.S. Treasury Dept. responded by recommending $250 billion in additional funds, and McConnell suggested that the Senate could pass more money as early as Thursday using the Unanimous Consent (UC) or voice vote procedure.  Both require that there be no objection as the House and Senate are only meeting in so-called proforma session with only a handful of members in town.  If anyone would want to stop the bill by asking for a quorum, or 50% of the members present, the bill would die for lack of a quorum.  Since the original bill passed the Senate on a vote of 96 to 0 McConnell is confident he can pull off the trick in the Senate.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has the same parliamentary problem that McConnell has as her members are also out of town.  As we saw when the CARES Act passed in the House of Representative, one member can stop the process by demanding that a quorum be prese...

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