Greater Franklin County Chamber of Commerce
COVID – 19 Update
April 24, 2020
$484B Small Business Coronavirus Relief Bill Signed Into Law
Payroll Protection Program Loans Again Available
President Trump on Friday signed the nearly $500 billion “Phase 3.5” emergency interim coronavirus relief package into law after Congress passed legislation this week replenishing the fund for small businesses and adding billions of dollars in aid to hospitals across the country amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The new interim emergency relief package, which provides $484 billion in additional funding, passed the House on Thursday and the Senate earlier this week.
The bill delivers a $310 billion infusion to the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), which helps businesses with fewer than 500 employees obtain loans that can cover eight weeks of their payroll, benefits and other expenses.
Thirty billion of that is reserved for community-based lenders, small banks and credit unions, and $30 billion is for mid-sized banks and credit unions.
The bill also provided an additional $50 billion for the Small Business Administration’s emergency disaster lending and $10 billion in SBA disaster grants.
The PPP was created as part of the more than $2.2 trillion “Phase 3” stimulus package, known as the CARES Act, which passed last month. The program converts the small business loans to grants and would be fully forgiven if 75 percent of the loan is used to keep employees on the payroll.
The PPP ran out of funding earlier this month, spurring Congress to pass the “Phase 3.5” relief package to replenish the PPP funds and fund other programs.
The Small Business Administration could begin taking loan applications again as early as Monday of next week through the Paycheck Protection Program for small businesses slammed by coronavirus-related economic hardship.
Chamber members are encouraged to contact their local financial institutions right-away for more details.
