Washington D.C.- On Tuesday, April 21, 2020 the Senate approved H.R. 266 otherwise known as The Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”) and Health Care Enhancement Act (the “Act”). Under the Act, the Senate expands on the Cares Act PPP loan initiative by increasing funds available to the Small Business Administration (“SBA”) by $310 billion totaling $659 billion available for small business economic relief.
Specifically, the Act is in response to the exhaustion of the initial $349 billion allocated to small business under PPP. As a result of widespread criticism of lenders prioritizing companies seeking higher loan amounts, the Act allocates $30 billion for loans offered by Community Financial Institutions, Small Insured Depository Institutions, and Credit Unions with assets less than $10 billion and $30 billion in funds for Insured Depository Institutions and Credit Unions with assets between $10 and $50 billion. With this in mind, the Senate hopes to make economic relief more readily available to small “mom and pop” businesses in economic distress caused by the COVID-19 epidemic. Similarly, the Act expands the Economic Injury Disaster Loss (“EIDL”) program; increases funds available under EIDL from $10 billion to $20 billion respectively.
Notably, The Senate granted the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) an additional $100 billion in funds to support hospitals, providers, and testing. These funds are in addition to the first $70 billion allocated in the CARES Act.
Stay tuned as we monitor H.R. 266 as it is introduced to the House of Representatives for approval.
