04.24.2020

Shaheen Statement as President Signs COVID-19 Relief Bill To Help Small Businesses, Hospitals and Ramp-Up Testing

**Legislation Replenishes Funding For Small Business Relief Programs That Senator Shaheen Helped Negotiate**

**NH Delegation Announced That NH Will Receive Approximately $17 Million for Testing From This New Law**

(Washington, DC)—U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), a lead negotiator of the small business assistance provisions in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act, including the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) Program, issued the following statement after President Trump signed legislation that provides help to small businesses, hospitals and ramp-up testing nationwide:

“I’m glad this bipartisan legislation was quickly signed into law. As New Hampshire’s small businesses struggle to go access to relief programs, our hospitals furlough staff as they treat COVID-19 patients, and Granite Staters struggle to access testing, I was adamant that this bill address these challenges and do more than the bare minimum. This new law will help small businesses, including those who don’t have relationships with big banks, assist our hospitals as they fight this pandemic and help ramp-up testing nationwide which is absolutely critical to re-opening our economy. We have so much more work to do and no time should be wasted in getting to work on the next bipartisan legislation that will help get our country through this crisis,” said Shaheen.

During negotiations, Senator Shaheen insisted that the PPP and the Economic Injury Disaster Program—both of which had run out of funding—be replenished. She also called for changes that would allow for better access for smaller businesses, particularly businesses that don’t have a relationship with a big bank, to access the program, as well as additional funding for health care providers. Senator Shaheen continues to call for other changes to the PPP program to help New Hampshire’s small businesses, including extending key deadlines, and is urging that these fixes be included in further COVID-19 response legislation.

Today’s agreement provides $484 billion for small businesses, hospitals and nationwide testing efforts which includes $250 billion for PPP. In addition, negotiations over the last week yielded:

To aid access to the program for smaller businesses, particularly businesses that don’t have relationships with big banks, this agreement has additional funding of $60 billion through PPP for smaller lending institutions to administer the program.
- This includes $30 billion for institutions that have under $50 billion in assets and $30 billion for institutions with under $10 billion in assets.
$50 billion for the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program, which will allow the Small Business Administration to approve approximately $350 billion in loans.
An additional $10 billion for EIDL grants.

Health Care Provider Grants and Testing:

$75 billion for grants for health care providers to help provide more liquidity for hospitals, physicians and other providers who are struggling with lost revenue and added expenses due to COVID-19.
- This funding builds on the $100 billion in health care provider grants already provided under the CARES Act.
- New Hampshire hospitals and providers have received $164.5 million so far through the first $30 billion installment of these grants.
$25 billion for a nationwide effort to ramp up testing capacity.
- This includes $11 billion for states and localities to scale up lab capacities, trace contacts and purchase diagnostic tests. New Hampshire will receive at least $17 million from this state testing fund.
- Also included are $1 billion for development, manufacturing and production of diagnostic and serological tests, $1.8 billion for National Institutes of Health efforts to develop and validate new testing methods and $1 billion to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to ramp up lab capacity, contact tracing and surveillance.