On The Money: Senate sends coronavirus aid package to Trump | Lawmakers race to draft next stimulus | Stocks close with steep loses | Treasury offers guidance on deferring tax payments

Happy Wednesday and welcome back to On The Money. I’m Sylvan Lane, and here’s your nightly guide to everything affecting your bills, bank account and bottom line.

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THE BIG DEAL–Senate passes House’s coronavirus aid bill, sending it to Trump: 

The Senate passed the House’s coronavirus aid package on Wednesday, sending it to President Trump, who is expected to sign it. 

• Senators voted 90-8 on the bill that passed the House in a middle-of-the-night Saturday vote but needed dozens of pages of corrections and changes, which cleared the chamber on Monday. 
• The measure, which the Joint Committee on Taxation estimates will cost $104 billion, is the second package that Congress has passed amid growing concerns about the widespread coronavirus outbreak in the United States that has already bludgeoned the economy.

The vote on the second package comes as senators are already working on “phase three,” with Senate Republicans wanting to pass the next tranche next week. 

The third coronavirus bill is expected to include help for impacted small businesses, industries and families, including direct cash payments for Americans.

The Hill’s Jordain Carney tells us more here.

Senate GOP racing to draft stimulus package:  After clearing the House bill, Republican senators are scrambling to put together a $1 trillion fiscal stimulus package before a wave of bankruptcies and layoffs sends the economy into a tailspin.

Senior GOP lawmakers say negotiations will likely stretch into next week given the massive size and complexity of the legislation and competing ideas over how to distribute the aid, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is taking a more hands-on role this time around.

• McConnell has established task forces and given them a deadline of Thursday to put together their components of the stimulus package, said Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who is working on small business relief provisions.
• Senate Republicans have assembled four task forces to put together the stimulus package: one focused on health issues, another focused on tax policy, a third dedicated to rescuing small businesses and a fourth tasked with putting together an aid package for major industries, such as the airlines.
• Senate GOP negotiators are also eyeing income thresholds of $75,000 for individuals and $150,000 for couples for the direct payments President Trump has proposed to ease the economic impact of the coronavirus.

LEADING THE DAY

GOP embraces big stimulus after years of decrying it: A $1 trillion federal stimulus. Bailouts for crippled industries. Cash payments to every American. Soaring deficits into the indefinite future. 

No, it’s not the Obama-era response to the Great Recession; it’s the Republicans’ plan to brace the plummeting economy amid sinking markets and mass layoffs resulting from the global coronavirus pandemic

The strategy marks a 180-degree turn for Republicans who had howled a decade ago when President Obama sought a similar, though smaller, stimulus plan with warnings that it encroached on free markets and threatened to bury the country in deficits — spending they said would saddle future generations with piles of debt.

The Hill’s Mike Lillis and Scott Wong tell us how it happened here.

Trump orders HUD to suspend evictions and foreclosures: President Trump on Wednesday directed the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to suspend evictions and foreclosures through April as Americans grapple with the fallout of the coronavirus.

The moratorium will apply only to homeowners with mortgages insured by the Federal Housing Administration, a HUD agency that backs affordable home loans issued through private firms. 

“Today’s actions will allow households who have an FHA-insured mortgage to meet the challenges of COVID-19 without fear of losing their homes, and help steady market concerns,” HUD Secretary Ben Carson said in a statement, referring to the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

“The health and safety of the American people is of the utmost importance to the Department, and the halting of all foreclosure actions and evictions for the next 60 days will provide homeowners with some peace of mind during these trying times.”

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) also announced Wednesday that it would suspend foreclosures and evictions for homeowners with mortgages backed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.

GOOD TO KNOW

• Stocks closed Wednesday with steep losses as the Dow Jones Industrial Average nearly gave up the entirety of its historic rally that followed President Trump’s January 2017 inauguration.
• The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) will temporarily shut the trading floor and turn to fully electronic trading in response to the growing coronavirus pandemic.  
• The U.S. regulator responsible for protecting U.S. bank deposits stressed Wednesday that Americans can feel confident storing their money in federally insured banks amid a financial panic driven by the coronavirus pandemic.
• The Treasury Department and IRS on Wednesday released guidance on deferring tax payments due to the coronavirus, providing further details for taxpayers and tax preparers.
• Optimism among American CEOs is plummeting at a rate that’s likely the worst since the Great Recession, according to a prominent business group that regularly surveys corporate executives.

ODDS AND ENDS

• Target stores nationwide will begin closing early on Wednesday to allow for restocking and sanitizing efforts amid the coronavirus outbreak.
• Meanwhile, “Lobbying groups that represent companies including Target Corp., The Clorox Co., and Anheuser-Busch InBev NV, are pushing for an exemption from local gathering bans and curfews in the U.S. so that stores can replenish products that are rapidly disappearing from store shelves,” according to Bloomberg News.