April 24, H.R.266, the Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act, was signed into law. H.R.266 is a $483 billion package that provides funding for the both the SBA’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) programs, in addition to supplementary aid for hospitals and COVID-19 testing. Both the PPP and EIDL programs ran out of money last week, and the SBA was no longer accepting applications due to a lack of funding. The SBA announced that it would be accepting applications for the PPP as of Monday, April 27, at 10:30 am EDT.
The breakdown of the appropriations in H.R.266 is as follows:
- $310 billion for the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) Loans with $60 billion set aside for smaller lenders
- $50 billion for the Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL)
- $10 billion for the EIDL Grants of up to $10,000
- $75 billion for hospitals
- $25 billion for COVID-19 testing
Congress is still working on additional COVID-19 relief packages that could contain a wide range of measures, such as pandemic premium pay for essential workers, financial assistance through a business recovery fund, and other monetary relief mechanisms.
