DETAILS: Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act

TOPLINE: Tomorrow, the House will vote on the Senate Amendment to H.R. 266 – Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act. This package is good news, but comes too late for many small businesses who were denied access to emergency loans since the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) ran out of money due to Democrats blocking the bill.

As a reminder, Democrats drew out negotiations on this package for weeks for absolutely no reason, allowing funding for the PPP to run dry despite repeated warnings from Republicans. Yesterday, Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin estimated that the Paycheck Protection Program alone has already saved 30 million American jobs.

Hundreds of small businesses wrote into our "SHARE YOUR STORY" portal over the past week to detail the unbearable choices they face without access to PPP loans.

This package will replenish those emergency funds for small businesses through the PPP and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) grant program. Securing funding for these programs has been a top priority for House Republicans and the Trump Administration.

Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act:

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• Provides an additional $310 billion in PPP loans:
  • $30 billion in guaranteed loans for lenders with less than $10 billion in assets.
  • $30 billion in guaranteed loans for lenders with $10 billion to $50 billion in assets.
• Provides an additional $10 billion for Emergency Economic Injury Disaster (EIDL) grants.
• Appropriates an additional $50 billion for the Disaster Loans Program Account.
• Allows agricultural enterprises as defined by section 18(b) of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 647(b)) with not more than 500 employees to receive EIDL grants and loans.
• Provides an additional $75 billion for reimbursement to hospitals and healthcare providers to support the need for COVID-19 related expenses and lost revenue.
• Provides $25 billion for necessary expenses to research, develop, validate, manufacture, purchase, administer, and expand capacity for COVID-19 tests, specifically:
  • $11 billion for states, localities, territories, and tribes to develop, purchase, administer, process, and analyze COVID-19 tests, scale-up laboratory capacity, trace contacts, and support employer testing. Funds are also made available to employers for testing.
  • $1 billion provided to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for surveillance, epidemiology, laboratory capacity expansion, contact tracing, public health data surveillance, and analytics infrastructure modernization.
  • $1.8 billion provided to the National Institutes of Health to develop, validate, improve, and implement testing and associated technologies; to accelerate research, development, and implementation of point-of-care and other rapid testing; and for partnerships with governmental and non-governmental entities to research, develop, and implement the activities.
  • $1 billion for the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority for advanced research, development, manufacturing, production, and purchase of diagnostic, serologic, or other COVID-19 tests or related supplies.
  • $22 million for the Food and Drug Administration to support activities associated with diagnostic, serological, antigen, and other tests, and related administrative activities.
  • $825 million for Community Health Centers and rural health clinics.
  • Up to $1 billion may be used to cover the costs of testing for the uninsured.

Please see the attached one-pager, courtesy of the House Appropriations Committee.

Click here or on the image above to view the one-pager.