news

WASHINGTON, DC - Today, Congresswoman Debbie Dingell (D-MI) traveled from Michigan to Washington, DC to vote for an interim coronavirus relief package that will provide billions of dollars in relief to Michigan small businesses, hospitals, health systems, and people.

“Coming together we were able to agree on a relief package that will help small businesses, frontline workers, hospitals and health systems, and increase testing,” said Dingell. “Every day we see the need for further action to combat the coronavirus crisis. Congress is going to continue to provide support to the American people until this invisible enemy is defeated and we can return to our normal way of life.”

“The interim bill is only a quick infusion of much-needed resources, but much more needs to be done to address the problems we are facing,” Dingell continued. “We must go bigger and further in assisting small businesses, go longer in providing unemployment benefits and provide additional resources to process UI claims, and give families additional direct payments. This crisis has touched every aspect of our lives, livelihood, society. We will do everything we can to give people the tools and hand up they need to get back on their feet and jump start the economy.”

The interim coronavirus relief package is focused directly on helping small businesses and frontline workers, and includes:

• Strengthening the Paycheck Protection Program with $310 billion in additional funding, with $30 billion reserved for community-based lenders, small banks and credit unions and $30 billion for mid-sized banks and credit unions.  The interim relief package also secures $50 billion for SBA emergency disaster lending, translating into more than $350 billion in loans, and $10 billion in SBA emergency disaster grants.  

• Providing hospitals, health systems, and health care and frontline workers with $75 billion in additional resources to the frontlines, including Personal Protective Equipment. The Trump Administration also agreed to key improvements to be made in CARES 2, including significantly lowering the interest rate on advance payments, lengthening the repayment schedule and distributing payments from general revenues not the Hospital Insurance Fund.

• Providing an additional $25 billion for testing, which is the key to reopening the economy and resuming our lives. The Administration has agreed to a national strategic testing policy that will focus on increasing domestic testing capacity including testing supplies. 

Since news first broke of the coronavirus, Dingell has vigorously monitored the coronavirus and work with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), state leaders and related federal agencies to ensure all preventative measures are taken to monitor and educate the public on Coronavirus. Every week, Dingell hosts telephone town halls with state and local health experts to provide update on steps being taken to keep our community safe.

###