April 25, 2020 Federal Update: COVID-19

President Trump Signs $484 billion Relief Package

President Donald Trump signed a $484 billion relief package Friday April 24 to provide further aid to employers, hospitals and health organizations conducting testing for COVID-19.

The bill is Congress’s latest effort to help the roughly 26 million people in the US who have filed for jobless aid in the last five weeks.  The funding measure provides:

• An additional $321 billion for the depleted Paycheck Protection Program, of which $60 billion is set aside for underbanked businesses. That includes community-based lenders, smaller banks and credit unions to assist smaller businesses that don’t have established relationships with big banks and had a harder time accessing the funds in the first round of loans. About $10 billion of that would also be allocated for administration fees;
• $60 billion in additional funds for the SBA’s disaster loans and grants programs;
• $75 billion for hospitals and
• $25 billion for coronavirus testing. Of that testing money, $11 billion will go to states and some will also go to the federal government.

Members of Congress are apparently pushing for a fifth relief bill to include aid for state and local governments experiencing a dramatic loss of revenues and increased expenses due to COVID-19.