Steven Mnuchin
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is putting $455B of unused CARES Act funding into an account that his presumed successor, former Fed Chair Janet Yellen, will need permission from Congress to use, Bloomberg reports, citing a Department spokesperson.
Mnuchin plans to place the money — $429B that's being retrieved from the Fed and $26B the Treasury received for direct loans to companies — into the Treasury's General Fund, which can only be used with "authority based on congressionally issued legislations," as the fund is described on the agency's website.
The $429B from the Fed is currently backing four emergency lending facilities that the central bank and Treasury established in the wake of financial turmoil caused by the pandemic in March. Mnuchin declined to extend those programs beyond Dec. 31.
If confirmed by the Senate, Yellen will start out as Treasury Secretary with just under $80B available in the department's Exchange Stabilization Fund, which can be used with some discretion by the head of the Treasury.
