Fellow Illinoisan,
This week, the Senate was once again able to come together on a bipartisan basis to unanimously pass an interim coronavirus emergency funding bill -- the fourth such bill we have passed to date. Like all compromises, it is not perfect. But thanks to the efforts of Senate Democrats, it is a much better bill than the one that was initially proposed.
All told, the bill includes $484 billion in additional federal funding to boost small businesses and hospitals, as well as to improve our nation’s coronavirus testing capabilities. Senate Democrats were able to secure $220 billion above and beyond what was included in the first proposal for this bill. Here is where that much-needed funding will be going:
- The initial bill did not include any funding for the hospitals and health care providers on the front line of this pandemic. Thanks to Senate Democrats, hospitals and health care providers will be receiving an additional $75 billion in emergency funding -- this is on top of the $100 billion we allocated for hospitals and health care providers in the CARES Act.
- The original bill did nothing to improve our nation’s coronavirus testing capabilities. Senate Democrats secured $25 billion to increase our capacity for testing and contract tracing. The key to getting our nation’s economy safely up and running again is testing, testing, testing.
- The initial bill included $250 billion for the Small Business Administration (SBA) Paycheck Protection Program, but did not include any dedicated funding for the small lenders and community-based financial institutions who primarily serve the needs of rural, minority-owned, and underserved small businesses. Because of Senate Democrats’ efforts, this bill now includes an additional $60 billion specifically for financial institutions serving our most vulnerable small businesses.
- In addition, Senate Democrats secured $50 billion for the SBA’s Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program and $10 billion for the SBA’s Emergency Economic Injury Grant program.
While all of these changes were steps in the right direction, I remain disappointed that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle refused to strengthen SNAP benefits for working families or provide much-needed emergency funding for our governors and mayors.
However, we were able to secure a commitment from President Trump and Treasury Secretary Mnuchin to support additional state and local funding to help replace lost revenue in the next relief legislation. I look forward to making sure they follow through on that promise – we cannot afford to leave our state & local governments out to dry.
Sincerely,
U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL)
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