Federal pandemic aid runs dry as businesses deal with Omicron’s impact

The vast majority of those emergency funds have already been spent on everything from lifelines to small businesses and stimulus checks to bailouts for airlines. There is no money left to rescue restaurants and most of the efforts to save small businesses have either expired or will soon.

“Another round of Covid fiscal relief is premature,” Moody’s Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi told CNN, “but lawmakers should be prepared to act quickly of the Omicron wave begins to undermine the economic recovery.”

But it’s clear the risks to the recovery have increased in recent days due to the spike in Covid-19 cases around the nation. And the growth outlook has been dimmed further by the apparent demise of the Build Back Better bill, at least in its current iteration.

86% of federal Covid funds have been disbursed

Over the course of the Biden and Trump administrations, Congress authorized a staggering $5.7 trillion in emergency Covid aid, according to a tally…

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