The forgivable loan program created just weeks ago to help small businesses through the COVID-19 pandemic is set to run out of money before Democrats and the Trump administration reach agreement on a new relief package.

Aides to Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., spoke with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Treasury staff earlier Wednesday, but a senior Democratic aide said just after 9 p.m. that talks would continue tomorrow.

Top Republicans lambasted Democratic leaders for not simply agreeing to boost the program's funding from $349 billion to $600 billion, rather than hold out for additional aid to states and hospitals.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California said late Wednesday they'd received word that the so-called Paycheck Protection Program "will exhaust its funding in a matter of hours" and have to stop processing loans.

"The notion that crucial help for working people is not appealing enough to Democrats without other additions sends a strange message about their priorities," the GOP leaders said in a joint statement. “The cost of continued Democratic obstruction will be pink slips and shuttered businesses."