The devil is in the details where coronavirus is concerned, U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Lehigh Valley, said Tuesday.

Red tape at the National Institutes of Health threatened to slow the certification of hospital-developed tests in Pennsylvania, the Lehigh Valley Republican said, until he asked Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, to intervene.

Now Toomey is worried that bureaucratic red tape in a House bill creating two weeks of paid sick leave for many of those left unemployed due to the coronavirus could sink small businesses, if not addressed in the Senate.

In a call with Pennsylvania news reporters, Toomey stressed that he supports the concept of the federal government underwriting paid sick leave for those left out of work either by coronavirus-related business closings, the illness itself or the need to care for a loved one with the illness. But he said the bill’s requirement that small businesses administer the plan could “push under some of the very employers that we want people to be able to return to work for.”

President Trump has signaled his support for the bill that passed the Houseby an overwhelming margin. The Senate is expected to vote on it in the next day or two.

“My biggest (concern) is the mechanism by which the House bill would deliver financial support to people out of work, namely imposing a new mandate on business,” Toomey said. “For small businesses, it could be very costly to administer. Whether that works, how that works, could be extremely onerous.”

He said he is working with a small group of senators and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to craft a measure to address the long term macroeconomic issues the U.S. economy is facing.

Toomey was hesitant to share specifics of those plans but said they would likely include some relief for critical infrastructure as well as a mechanism to extend credit and aid to small businesses “to ensure they are able to cover their essentials.”

“The crisis we’re facing is not the fault of a business that didn’t plan well or plan its business well,” he said. “This is not someone getting rewarded for bad behavior. It’s more akin to our society going on a wartime footing.”

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