Senate Passes Additional Relief For Small Businesses
Wednesday, April 22nd, 2020
U.S. Senator David Perdue (R-GA) supported unanimous Senate passage of an additional $310 billion for the Paycheck Protection Program, which ran out of funding last week due to delays by Democrats:
“This new funding for the Paycheck Protection Program will offer a lifeline to small businesses and the millions of hardworking women and men they employ. By providing cash flow assistance, we are helping businesses keep their employees and preventing a liquidity crisis from becoming an insolvency crisis,” said Senator Perdue. “Let’s be clear: this deal could have been reached two weeks ago. Instead, the process was dragged out purely for political purposes. This is unacceptable, and the American people deserve better. In times of crisis, our nation needs to know it can count on Congress to act quickly and decisively.”
The bipartisan package passed today also includes an additional $10 billion for emergency Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL), $50 billion for the Small Business Administration’s disaster loan program, $75 billion for reimbursements to hospitals and health care providers, and $25 billion to expand testing capacity.
In Georgia, the Small Business Administration (SBA) has already approved over 48,000 PPP loans, totaling nearly $9.5 billion. On April 9, Senate Republicans introduced a bill that would have prevented the program from running out of funding. Unfortunately, the measure was blocked by Senate Democrats.
Since the passage of the CARES Act, Senator Perdue has spoken daily with small business owners and local community lenders about bridging the gap for the business community in order to support Georgia workers and their families.