WASHINGTON — A Trump administration request for quick approval of $250 billion in additional loans to help distressed small businesses weather the coronavirus crisis stalled Thursday in the Senate after Republicans and Democrats clashed over what should be included in the latest round of government relief.

The dispute was a prelude to what is likely to be a far more complicated and consequential set of negotiations over a larger infusion of federal aid that lawmakers expect to consider in the coming weeks on the heels of the $2 trillion stimulus law enacted late last month. The White House had asked lawmakers to move in the interim to inject more money into a new loan program intended to keep small businesses afloat and allow them to avoid laying off workers as the pandemic continues to batter the economy.

But Democrats argued that as long as Congress was providing additional aid, it should include more money that was urgently needed for hospitals, states and cities confronting the coronavirus, as well as additional food assistance for Americans coping with its punishing economic toll.

Republicans balked at that effort, saying the time for negotiating such additions was later.

“My colleagues must not treat working Americans as political hostages,” said Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader. With the Senate not scheduled to return until April 20, he added, lawmakers should have “focused discussions on urgent subjects without turning every conversation into a conversation about everything.”