Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said the U.S. “definitely” needs additional fiscal stimulus -- particularly funding for industries struggling to reopen from coronavirus-related closures.

“I definitely think we are going to need another bipartisan legislation to put more money into the economy,” Mnuchin said Wednesday before the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee. “Whatever we do going forward needs to be much more targeted to the industries and small businesses that are having the most difficulty reopening as a result of COVID-19.”

Democrats have been seeking an additional funding bill. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is pushing for nearly US$1 trillion in state and local aid to make up for revenue lost during the COVID-19 pandemic and has argued that failure to enact the funding would lead to job losses. President Donald Trump said he’ll ask Congress to pass more economic stimulus, including a payroll tax cut.

House Democrats passed an additional US$3.5 trillion stimulus bill last month, including a new round of US$1,200 checks to individuals and expanded unemployment insurance. But Republicans controlling the Senate have rejected that proposal and plan to wait until late July before considering their own alternative.

Mnuchin singled out the retail, travel and leisure industries as needing more help. He said retailers lost more than 2 million jobs in April, but just 16 per cent of those workers returned in May.

“I do think the economy is going to rebound significantly, but there is still significant damage in parts of the economy,” Mnuchin said. “We’re going to use all of our fiscal tools to work with Congress” to “restore this economy to where it was.”

Mnuchin said that capital gains tax cuts have been discussed but indicated he didn’t think that was a good approach.

Mnuchin praised the Paycheck Protection Program, designed to help small businesses keep employees on the payroll during the pandemic, with saving 50 million jobs.

He said it appears there will be US$130 billion in PPP funds remaining after the Small Business Administration stops taking new applications June 30. Mnuchin told Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana that he’s open to the idea of repurposing money from the small business relief loan program to help businesses hurt by recent looting.

May unemployment unexpectedly declined to 13.3 per cent as employers added 2.5 million workers to payroll, defying expectations for a Depression-style surge in joblessness and stoking optimism the economy is bouncing back from a virus-induced recession.

“I was very pleasantly surprised by the recent numbers, I though we were going to bottom in June not in May,” Mnuchin said. Other economists, including White House adviser Kevin Hassett, had predicted 20 per cent unemployment before the recovery began.

--With assistance from Erik Wasson.