24 Apr Congress Passes 4th COVID-19 Response Bill Thursday
Yesterday, the U.S. House of Representatives followed the Senate’s vote on Tuesday to pass the fourth COVID-19 response bill aimed to shore up funding for small businesses hurt by the global pandemic. This relief package included funding for the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster Loans, as well as for hospitals and testing. Here is the complete breakdown:
- Total cost: $484.352 billion
- $311 billion for small businesses
- $60 billion for emergency disaster funds for small businesses
- $75 billion for hospitals
- $25 billion for testin
The latest COVID-19 response bill includes the following language supporting States to provide testing to employers:
“Of the amount appropriated under this paragraph in this Act, not less than $11,000,000,000 shall be for States, localities, territories, tribes, tribal organizations, urban Indian health organizations, or health service providers to tribes for necessary expenses to develop, purchase, administer, process, and analyze COVID–19 tests, including support for workforce, epidemiology, use by employers or in other settings, scale up of testing by public health, academic, commercial, and hospital laboratories, and community-based testing sites, health care facilities, and other entities engaged in COVID-19 testing, conduct surveillance, trace contacts, and other related activities related to COVID–19 testing.”