Senate Passes Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act: Breakdown of COVID-19 Stimulus Measure 3.5

Summary

The Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act provides additional funding for the recently created Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and the Economic Injury Disaster Loans to replenish the funds that ran out earlier this week. It also includes set-asides within these programs for "community financial institutions," which include credit unions, community financial institutions, and minority depository institutions. In addition, it includes funding for testing and further study of COVID-19, with an eye to beginning to reopen the country.

Division A—Small Business Programs

Sec. 101. Amendments to the Paycheck Protection Program, Economic Injury Disaster Loan, and Emergency Grants

• Increases the funding for the Paycheck Protection Program from $349 billion to $659 billion.
• Creates a set-aside for insured depository institutions, credit unions, and community financial institutions for the Paycheck Protection Program.
• Increases the funding for Emergency Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) grants from $10 billion to $20 billion.
• Amends the definition of "eligible entity" for EIDL grants and loans to include agricultural enterprises, as defined in section 18(b) of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. § 647(b)), with fewer than 500 employees.
• Defines "Community Financial Institutions" as "community development financial institutions," "minority depository institutions" as defined in section 308 of the Financial Institution Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989 (12 U.S.C. § 1463 note), a development company certified under title V of the Small Business Investment Act of 1958 (15 US.C. § 695 et seq.), and micro-loan intermediaries. In addition, defines "credit union" to mean a state or federal credit union.
• Division A sets aside the following amounts for the Paycheck Protection Program:
  • $30 billion for loans made by Insured Depository Institutions and Credit Unions, which have assets between $10 billion and $50 billion; and
  • $30 billion for loans made by Community Financial Institutions, insured depository institutions with assets of less than $10 billion, and credit unions with assets less than $10 billion.

Sec. 102. Emergency Designation

• Designates the amount under this section as an emergency requirement pursuant to section 4(g) of the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010 (2 U.S.C. § 933(g)).

Division B—Testing, Research, and Response Funding

HHS Funding

• Public Health and Social Services Emergency Fund: Provides an additional $75 billion to reimburse eligible healthcare providers for healthcare-related expenses or lost revenues that are directly attributable to the coronavirus. This is in addition to the $100 billion provided for in the CARES Act.
• Research: Provides $25 billion for expenses associated with research, development, validation, manufacture, purchase, administration, and expanding capacity for COVID-19 testing. Of this amount, specific funding is dedicated to:
  • $11 billion for states, localities, territories, tribes, tribal organizations, urban Indian health organizations, and health service providers for tribes for necessary expenses to develop, purchase, administer, process, and analyze COVID-19 tests, which includes support for workforce; epidemiology; use by employers; and scaling up testing by public health, academic, commercial, and hospital laboratories, and community-based testing sites, healthcare facilities, and other entities engaged in testing. The funds may also be used to conduct surveillance, trace contacts, and other activities related to COVID-19 testing.
    • $2 billion of this amount is allocated to states, localities, and territories according to the formula applied in the Public Health Emergency Preparedness cooperative agreement;
    • $4.25 billion of this amount is allocated to areas based on the relative number of COVID-19 cases; and
    • $750 million is allocated in coordination with the Director of the Indian Health Service, to tribes, tribal organizations, urban Indian health organizations, and health service providers for tribes.
  • $1 billion provided to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for surveillance, epidemiology, laboratory expansions, contact tracing, public health-related data surveillance, and modernizing analytics infrastructure.
  • $1.8 billion to the National Institutes of Health to develop, validate, improve, and implement testing, and accelerate research, development, and implementation of point-of-care and other rapid testing processes, and for partnerships with government and non-government entities to research, develop, and implement COVID-19 testing.
  • $1 billion for the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority for necessary expenses of advancing research, development, manufacture, production, and purchase of diagnostic, serologic, or other COVID-19 tests and supplies.
  • $22 million transferred to the Food and Drug Administration, to support activities associated with diagnostic, serologic, antigen, and other tests, and related administrative activities of the administration.
  • Products purchased with funds appropriated by the measure may be deposited in the Strategic National Stockpile under section 319F-2 of the Public Health Service Act.
  • $600 million to the Health Resources and Services Administration for primary healthcare through the Health Centers program and for grants to federally qualified health centers, and $225 million is allocated for testing and related expenses for rural health clinics, as defined in section 1861(aa)(2) of the Social Security Act.
  • Up to $1 billion of the funds allocated is available to cover the cost of testing for the uninsured.
  • $6 million is dedicated to the Department of Health and Human Service's Office of Inspector General for oversight activities.
• Reporting: Within 180 days after enactment, the Secretary of the Health and Human Services must release a report on the number of positive diagnoses, hospitalizations, and deaths as a result of COVID-19, disaggregated nationally by race, ethnicity, age, sex, geographic region, and other relevant factors.
• Congressional Oversight: Within 30 days after enactment, the Secretary of the Health and Human Services must report to the relevant congressional committees on a strategic testing plan, which will help states, localities, tribes, tribal organizations, and urban Indian health organizations better understand COVID-19 testing.

Small Business Administration

Provides an additional $2.1 billion for salaries and expenses of the Small Business Administration to prevent, prepare for, and respond to COVID-19.

Provides an additional $50 billion for a "Disaster Loans Program Account," for the cost of direct loans authorized by section 7(b) of the Small Business Act, and an additional $10 billion for "EIDL Grants," for the cost of EIDL grants authorized by section 1110 of Division A of the CARES Act.

General Provisions

Provide the relevant definitions (i.e., defining "coronavirus" to mean "SARS-CoV-2 or another coronavirus with pandemic potential") and the budgetary impact of the legislation.