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U.S. Representative Donna Shalala (FL-27) joined her colleagues in the House of Representatives in voting to pass the bipartisan Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act, a comprehensive bill that will provide much needed additional funding to the small business emergency relief programs created by the historic CARES Act.
“The national emergency created by the coronavirus pandemic has impacted every facet of American life,” said Rep. Shalala. “When Congress passed the CARES Act, we committed to doing everything necessary to guarantee that our country could weather this storm. Once we learned that the Paycheck Protection Program would exhaust its initial funding, Congress knew it had to act to keep America’s small businesses afloat. We will continue to do whatever we must to protect the small businesses that are the backbone of our country’s economy.”
Shalala continued, “Congress will not abandon it responsibility to protect the families, workers, state and local governments and others that are bearing the brunt of this crisis. We will continue to work on legislation to overcome the challenges presented by COVID-19.”
The Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act will provide an additional $310 billion to the PPP and allocate $60 billion in set-aside funding for mission-based lenders to make loans to the nation’s smallest and underserved businesses. The bill will also increase the amount of money in the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program by an additional $10 billion. This money can be used more flexibly to help small businesses cover long-term expenses like rent.
Finally, the Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act provides for additional funding for the hospitals and other healthcare providers ($75 billion) and COVID-19 testing ($25 billion).
More information on the Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act, can be found here.
