PPP 2.0: Congress, White House agree on $310B in new funding

Real estate got 3% of initial Paycheck Protection Program loans; $484B package also funds hospitals, testing

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)

The $349 billion Paycheck Protection Program, which ran out of money after just 13 days, is getting a much-needed refill.

Lawmakers and the Trump administration came to a deal Tuesday that will provide more than $310 billion in new funding for the program, $60 billion of which will be set aside for smaller lending institutions at Democrats’ request, the New York Times reported.

The $484 billion overall relief package also provides funding for hospitals, coronavirus testing, and a Small Business Administration disaster relief fund, and requires the Trump administration to prepare a national coronavirus testing strategy.

Real estate companies received about 3 percent of the initial $342 billion in loans approved through the federal Paycheck Protection Program, according to SBA figures. The program was first set up as part of the $2 trillion stimulus package in late March.

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Most landlords, which the SBA deems “passive businesses,” are ineligible to participate in the program. Real estate brokers, as independent contractors, had to wait an extra week to file their applications for the first-come, first-served loans.

The first batch of PPP funds went toward more than 1.6 million loans from nearly 5,000 lenders, an amount that the SBA would need 14 years to go through at its typical rate. [NYT] — Kevin Sun

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