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Chances for a planned Senate vote on a historic $2 trillion relief package in response to the coronavirus pandemic appeared to dwindle Wednesday as senators threatened to delay it over a key unemployment insurance proposal.

Earlier in the day, four Republican senators — Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott of South Carolina, Ben Sasse of Nebraska and Rick Scott of Florida — threatened not to support the chamber’s push to pass the rescue package through fast-track procedures. They argued a plan to add $600 per week to unemployment insurance for up to four months, a core provision of the near-final legislation, could encourage companies to lay off workers and Americans to stay unemployed. 

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., then said he would delay the bill if his GOP colleagues did not drop their opposition, calling it an “outrage” to prevent Americans from getting emergency unemployment insurance. In a statement, he said he is “prepared to put a hold on this bill” to lobby for tighter restrictions on companies receiving aid from a taxpayer pool of $500 billion. 

The prospect of an impasse in the Senate appeared to hit U.S. stock indexes at the end of Wednesday’s session. Investors hoped Congress could quickly approve the legislation, which gives direct payments to Americans, loans to businesses large and small and resources to states and hospitals to fight the outbreak.

Lawmakers moved swiftly to put together the stimulus plan, which the Senate hopes to pass by Wednesday night after several false starts during frenzied negotiations in recent days. After Democrats blocked an earlier version of the legislation twice to try to secure concessions, Republicans accused them of delaying aid desperately needed to boost a reeling economy and health care system.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said Wednesday he would give representatives 24 hours’ notice before a vote on the relief package. By about 4:15 p.m. ET, the Senate had not released the final version of its legislation. 

The emergency unemployment insurance provision, a compromise reached between Republicans and Democrats, aims to help workers hit by widespread layoffs as regular businesses in the U.S. ground to a halt to slow the pandemic’s spread. Earlier Wednesday, the four Republican senators called for an amendment to cap the benefit at 100% of a worker’s previous pay. 

“Let’s just make sure we make people whole. Let’s not increase their salary because you can’t afford to do that,” he told reporters. 

In response to the lawmakers’ concerns, a senior GOP aide said “we’ll have to do something” to secure their support. 

A spokesperson for the Senate Finance Committee, the panel that drafted the unemployment insurance provision, did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request to comment on what changes the Senate could potentially make.

— CNBC’s Kayla Tausche and Lauren Hirsch contributed to this report

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