The Senate passed a $484 billion relief package Tuesday that includes hundreds of billions of dollars in a second round of funding for small businesses, with a significant amount of money also allocated to hospitals and expanded coronavirus testing.
The Senate passed the bill by a voice vote and it now goes to the House, which is expected to approve the package Thursday.
The primary focus of the bill is another $320 billion for the Paycheck Protection Program, which was established to help small businesses cover the costs of payroll and essential expenses. Part of last month’s $2.2 trillion stimulus package, the initial $349 billion allocated for the PPP ran out in just two weeks.
Loans can be forgiven if businesses maintain their number of employees and primarily use the loans for payroll.
“At the core of our agreement is $320 billion more for the Paycheck Protection Program, which is already saving millions of small-business jobs and helping Americans get paychecks instead of pink slips,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
Another $60 billion of the bill will go toward additional Economic Injury Disaster Loans, which also ran out of their initial funding. EIDL loans provide economic support up to $10,000 to small businesses to help overcome the temporary loss of revenue they are experiencing as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The bill also allocates an additional $75 billion to hospitals and health care providers to help fund their response to the coronavirus and cover lost revenue, as they’ve had to postpone many of their procedures and elective surgeries.
The new funds for health care build on the $100 billion that were created with last month’s stimulus package — though only about $30 billion of that has been distributed so far.
Finally, $25 billion is being provided to expand coronavirus testing abilities. According to multiple reports, the bill would give $11 billion to states and localities to administer and analyze tests as well as conduct contact tracing.
Also according to reports, as much as $1 billion can be used to cover costs for testing the uninsured, and $1 billion would go toward the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for surveillance measures and other needs.
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