Energy Chief Says Fed Asked to Expand Lending for Oil Firms (1)

The Trump administration asked the Federal Reserve to modify its Main Street Lending Program to include more mid-size companies in order to help oil firms cope with the plunge in crude prices, Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette said.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin “worked very closely with the Federal Reserve. We adjusted the program -- the Main Street Lending Program -- and made that program available to what we refer to as mid-cap size companies,” Brouillette said Tuesday on Bloomberg TV.

Brouillette said the president directed both him and Mnuchin “to evaluate the programs that were passed by the Congress and...