(WASHINGTON, D.C) – Congressman Mike Rogers made the following statement today after H.R. 266, the Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act, passed the House of Representatives with his strong support.

“Today I voted for the Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act. This bill will increase the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) by an additional $310 billion. This vital program has helped millions of American workers and businesses get much-needed financial assistance during these challenging times. 

“This action should’ve been taken over two weeks ago when President Trump requested more money for the PPP, or it could’ve happened last week when the program ran out of money. Instead, Speaker Pelosi wasted time with her ridiculous partisan political games.  She also played politics with $75 billion for hospitals, including $10 billion specifically for rural hospitals like the ones in my district that are in desperate need. 

“In the week the Democrats sat on their hands and allowed the PPP to go unfunded, 4.4 million Americans lost their jobs due to the coronavirus pandemic. As we move forward to reopen our economy and Congress works on the next round of legislation, I call on Speaker Pelosi to put America first and stop playing these partisan political games.”

                Rogers serves as Ranking Member on the Committee on Homeland Security and a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee.

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*Specifics on what is in the legislation below:
• Provides an additional $310 billion in PPP loans: 
    o $30 billion in guaranteed loans for lenders with less than $10 billion in assets.
    o $30 billion in guaranteed loans for lenders with $10 billion to $50 billion in assets.
• Provides an additional $ 10 billion for Emergency Economic Injury Disaster grants
• Appropriates an additional $50 billion for Disaster Loans Program Account
• Allows agricultural enterprises as defined by section 18(b) of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C 647(b)) with not more than 500 employees to receive EIDL and lost revenue. 
• Provides an additional $75 billion for reimbursement to hospitals and health care providers to support the need for COVID-19 related expenses and lost revenue. 
• Provides $25 billion for necessary expenses to research, develop, Validate, manufacture, purchase, administer, and expand capacity for COVID-19 tests, specifically: 
    o $11 billion for states, localities, territories, and tribes to develop, purchase, administer, process, and analyze COVID-19 tests, scale-up laboratory capacity, trace contacts, and support employer testing. Funds are also made available to employers for testing. 
    o $1 billion provided to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for surveillance, epidemiology, laboratory capacity expansion, contact tracing, public health data surveillance and analytics infrastructure modernization. 
    o $1.8 billion provided to the National Institutes of Health to develop, validate, implement testing and associated technologies; to accelerate research, development, and implementation of point-of-care and other rapid testing; and for partnerships with governmental and non-governmental entities to research, develop, and implement the activities. 
    o $ 1 billion for the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority for advanced research, development, manufacturing, and related administrative activities. 
    o $825 million for Community Health Centers and rural health clinics.
    o Up to $1 billion may be used to cover costs of testing for the uninsured.