On April 23, Congress passed, and President Donald Trump signed into law, an additional $484-billion relief package to address the staggering economic impacts of COVID-19. The bill, known as the Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act, allocates nearly $310 billion for the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), which will be disbursed in loans of up to $10 million for small businesses struggling to manage payroll costs. The bill also allocates $100 billion for coronavirus response efforts. Of this $100 billion, $25 billion will go to funding for research, development, and manufacturing of COVID-19 tests. The remaining $75 billion is intended to reimburse health care providers for lost revenue attributable to COVID-19.

PPP was first established in March as a provision of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act). The Small Business Administration closed applications for PPP last week, reporting that all of the $349 billion in original funds had been disbursed.

The Senate approved the additional $310 billion of funding for PPP on Tuesday. It is expected that the SBA will move to disburse loans immediately, as they already have a bank of pending applications that were not able to be approved before the first round of funding ran out.

The Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act does not expand PPP program eligibility to 501(c)(6) or 501(c)(7) organizations.

For those that intend to apply for the second round of PPP loans and have not yet done so, acting fast is critical. Small businesses can apply for PPP loans through any SBA 7(a) lender or through any federally insured depository institution, federally insured credit institution or Farm Credit System institution that is participating. The SBA recommends that small businesses confirm with their local lender as to whether it is participating in the program before they apply.

The House also debated and passed H.Res. 935 on April 23, which establishes a Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis as a select investigative subcommittee of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform. The vote was 212-182, with all Democrats voting for the measure and all Republicans and one Independent voting against it.

GCSAA's government affairs team will continue to have golf's voice heard as Congress works on additional relief packages.