We know that. They are very concerned about their own health. Theyre worried that the may be carrying the virus when you take it home to the elderly parent who could come down with the virus. They are worried about how long this social distancing and commuting from home, staying at home is going to be required in order to control the spread of the virus. They are worried about their economic circumstances, whether theyre going to get a paycheck. And i am pleased that today we have an agreementrd with our leaders to move forward on the third stimulus package to deal with this crisis of covid19. Covid19. I first want to express my appreciation to our leadership. H senator schumer, and i know how hard he has worked to make sure this package really reaches a medical emergency that we have, that deals with the workers to they are protected and they are protected in whatever we do, that provides the help for state and local governments, that provides a muchneeded attention to these particular issues and that we have accountability on any of the monies that are going particularly to our Largest Companies in this country. Some want tom express my appreciation, and im very pleased that our first priority, our very first priority, is to deal with the Public Health challenge. This is included in was happening in my state of maryland was happening in every state in our nation. So i am pleased that in our state its team maryland. Our congressional delegation is working very closely with Governor Hogan and his cabinet, and were working veryou closely with our account executives and our mayors and ouran private sector to do everything we can to protect the Public Health of the people of our s state. Locally to make sure testing is available so we understand that the mention of this problem, e governor has taken extraordinaire steps in order to increase our medical capacity in the likelihood that were going to see a significant increase number of those people that have the coronavirus. Yes, we need to stay at home, unless it is an urgent reason for us to be outside of home. And im frequently asked by my friends, why dont we get as much as we can in the United States senate remotely . Ii think we should, including voting. So we need to distance ourselves and minimize social contact in order to prevent the spike of this disease which would test our medical capacity to handle it. So i was pleased that the third supplemental, the agreement tt is been reached that we will vote on hopefully today, that it does have a surge in our medical capacity, a Marshall Plan to do with our healthcare needs. I could go through a lot of the specifics. I think some authority beenug ge through but particularly prescient the fact that we have 100 billion for hospitals and healthcare facilities, including clinics in this bill. I am pleased that there is a 20 increase in hospital reimbursement rates. I want to think senator grassley and senator wyden for including in a provision a unique cause for them maryland hospital so they can be qualified for this. Maryland has ase i think some of you know, and all. Structure and weird to make sure that these provisions would apply in maryland, and i thank themor for their attention to detail. Theres also money in your for hospital to be ready for preparedness, which i think is extremely important. And theres a separate line of appropriation for our Community Health centers and are federally qualified health clinics. Thats critically important. They are being stressed as the needs are increasing at as the cost of treatment is increasing. We need to replenish the National Stockpile. We know the concerns of protective gear. We know that we know that ventilators and respirators are in short supply. Weve got to make sure that we have adequate replacement of what has been taken out of our National Stockpile and available now to deal with the surge that is coming under any scenario so that our healthcare workers have protective gear that they need and our patients have medical facilities and the respirators that they need. We also have lost up the work being done plast dealing with vexing. Please in h is getting money the need for us to do the work. We know that when i could have a vaccine in time this year but want to make sure that we get it as soon as possible and its on a fasttrack and the suns will help us develop that faxing for the future needs of controlling this type of a virus. The meantime we also putting resources into therapeutic drugs and drug sicken of people that are sick today. Those drugs are not yet available but we want to make sure we do everything we can to make them available as soon as possible. Fema has been bumped up the judge in this bill, with reason. The federal Emergency Management agency. That makes me to the point that is a major improvement thats been brought to this legislation to our state and local governments. They are the frontlines of providing these Public Health needs and we need to provide them the resources they need. So fema needs to be properly appropriated and we have the money in your to help fema but we also need direct help to our local governments to deal with this problem, and we see that our state andal local Public Health officers are getting extra money. , federal reporting so we know exactly what the status is in each of our communities. All of that is important for Marshall Plan to control this disease and get it under control. But i wanted to take this time to talk about the matter that i was working on on Small Business, and i mentioned that recognizing we got to get our economy back on track. The best way to get our economy back on track, get this virus controlled. Get people able to get out, to work and to buy and participate in our economy. Thats the best thing we can do. But this package alsoec recognis that unless we help businesses and workers today, were not going to be prepared for our economy or when we are able to rebound. So my role as the senior democrat on the Small Business committee, working with senator rubio, the chairman of that committee, was to make sure we had a robust provision to preserve the Growth Engine and innovation engine of our economy, m and that is Small Businesses. There is more job growth for Small Companies. Theres more innovation Small Companies. We need to preserve the ability of Small Companies to get through this time. And, quite frankly, they dont have the same deep pockets that Large Companies have. They dont have the same availability of credit that Large Companies have given have the same banking arrangements that Large Companies have. They dont have the same flexibility that Large Companies have, so we have to provide special attention to Small Businesses, and this package does that in a very, very robust way. F so first, i already mention senator rubio. I thank him for his leadership. The two of us were working together well before this week, thats why we were probably further along on helping Small Businesses than the other parts of this package dealing with the various economic areas. Senator shaheen was a valuable member of our team. Ive worked with senator shaheen on Small Business issuessh for a long time. She was a key player of putting together the package that we have to present to our college here in the United States senate. I also want to acknowledge senator collins. It was the four of us that were meeting regularly, communicating regularly that recommended this package that you will be shortly voting on as relates to Small Business. So also if i i could i would le to acknowledge members of my own staff that have worked literally 24 7. Ive talked to them at various times during the night and day, and its been very stressful for all of us, our staffs get no rest whatsoever. So to sean moore and the entire staff on the democratic side of Small Business committee, thank you on behalf of americas Small Businesses and workers, and on behalf of our country. And to ron store half was been lot of these provisions on my staff in regards to the tax issues in regards to a lot of these other issues, thank him for all of his work, and to lauren g who is her Health Person without a helpless put together this Small Business package but shes been available to help Maryland Health providers and patients to try to get through where we are today. All of that is reflected in the bill that we will be voting on later, and i know on the republican side theres been dedicated staff who have done equal work to make sure that we have a bill that we can present today. So let me go over, if i might, some of the provisions that we have in here for Small Businesses. We have three new programs, three new programs to help Small Businesses in our community. They will have different titles, but every one of them provide grant help to Small Businesses. Im going to repeat that. You might hear this is a loan. No, these are going to be signs that go to Small Businesses that do not have to be repaid. These are grant money. Why . Because a Small Business owner cant incur more debt today when they had to idea how theyre going to be able to survive in the future. Weve got to provide immediate help, immediate help. Its got to be substantial, and its got to be in a way that the know that theyre not encumbering their future. And thats it we do they want to get that message out, that this is going to be immediate help to help americas Small Business. One Program Provides 350 billion of relief to Small Companies under 500 employees. 350 billion. It is triggered by going to your financiall institution and getting whats known as as 7a loan. But when the caution you that its going to be forgiven if you follow thehe rules here. But you go to a bank. They are, by mrs. Addition, you do a 7a loan, 100 guaranteed by the federal government so the bank has to risk factor here. There are no payments due for a year so even getting into this loan there is no obligations for cash outlays on behalf of the borrower. So this is a cost free opportunity to get the cash you need to keep your Small Business open. Thats the purpose of this new program under the Small Business administration. The amount of the loan. You take your average payroll before the coronavirus was here, and you take your Monthly Average payroll and multiply it by 2. 5. Basically what youre getting is two months of payroll for your workers, plus an extra comes out an extra 25 of your payroll but two months of that. What eligible expenses, what can you use this for . You can use the two months of payroll for payroll. I your workers. Keep them employed. It saves you the cost of rehire if you have a furlough or lay off workers. You can keep them employed that you can use extra funds to cover their expenses that you have on their healthcare or related expenses. You can use the extra 25 for rents or mortgage payments or utility bills. So it gives you a cash to conduct your business for the next two months. It gives you the ability to keep afloat so that youre ready to rebound when the economy rebounds. So his eligible . As i said companies under 500, but we went beyond the traditional seven eligibilityut period for the first time under seven a were also allowing nonprofits to be able to get into this program so that they will also be able to stay afloat because we know the important work that nonprofits do for our community. They are also eligible. And we get some relaxation to the 500 rule for locations that were for restaurants or hotels that have multiple locations. This this is a program that is d at keeping businesses open and ready, Small Businesses for when we get through this coronavirus. And then this amount of money that you borrowed is totally forgiven. Totally forgiven if you maintain your workforce to the precoronavirus level, or bring back your workforce to the precoronavirus level during the stated period of time of this bill. So if you keep your workforce or bring back your workforce, the government is going to help you maintain your ability and make sure your workers get paid and the benefits are maintained. It works very well with the other provisions that are in other parts of this bill, such as the Unemployment Insurance benefits. Yes if you furlough workers you can click and Employment Benefits at basically full salary for the next four months. So lets also available to Small Businesses but we want you to also note that you can keep your employees employed. They are ready for the business to rebound asop we hope it will shortly. So thats just one program. We have other programs available. We had a new program which is labeled as a grant, at 10 billion grant program, for emergency cashge availability fr Small Businesses. There are many Small Businesses that have a hard time like a bank and gettingrc a commercial appeared that a Small Businesses that need cash today. They cant wait for the process to work its way through to get the checktr from the Small Business administration through oneit of their Financial Institutions. Its going to take a little bit longer for them to be able to get that done. So we have emergency Disaster Relief loans in the first supplemental. We made it clear that Small Businesses qualify for emergency Disaster Relief loans if they have been adversely impacted by the coronavirus. These are direct loans, out of the Small Business administration. These are not loans that are from Financial Institutions. We have included that in the first supplemental. We now allow you to make that application, and with that application if you need to get cash immediately, the sba can write you a check for up to 10,000. And we want that done within three days. We want that money out in days, not weeks. We hear that all the time from Small Businesses. We need help now. Well, this program, and i was pleased to work on this program, i i filed legislation on it. This this is a need thats out e today and will be available to Small Business owners. Now, we have a third program. Thats two programs. You can get this basically twomonth help from the federal program to pay your payroll and related expenses. A 10,000 immediate cash advancement on that through applying for Disaster Relief alone, and showing a need at this stage, then theres a third program. There are many Small Businesses today that have existing loans under Small Business administration. These are 7 a loans. Seven is traditional loan. 504 are the larger loans. What this bill does is provide 17 billion of relief, so those who have these existing loans do not need to make any payments on those loans. They are forgiven for the next six months. Particularly want to ignore senator coons work on this. Practice is built that weve been working on and is only reasonable to relieve debt, let us do it for our Small Businesses under 7a and 504 programs. Four programs. So as you see, madam president , theres a lot of provisions are two of our Small Businesses. I want to tell you that there are other in addition to those that i just mentioned, im pleased that we do have contract protection in this bill and then explain what that means. If you are a business and have contract with the federal government, this applies to all businesses, not to Small Businesses, but Small Businesses are particularly impacted by it, but you cant perform that government contract because you cant get access to the facility because it is sharp as a result of the coronavirus. This g bill allows you, the federal government, to make sure you have adequate Funds Available to pay your workers so that those individuals who should have been working at the federal facility will get paid during this period of time. Weve also provided money for the Womens Business Centers in the minority business to bellman centers. That or theyre in a committee. Why . Because were to get the message out the Small Business have these new schools. How to get access banks to get these 7a loans that are forgiven that are actually grant. How they can apply to the Small Business administration for a cash advancement. Ho how they can get relief from their current 7a and 504 loans. So we give money to these institutions so that, these entrepreneur Service Groups so they can help women businesses and minority businesses to access. Im going to tell you, madam president can we also put a clear intent that we expect the Financial Institutions to make loans to all size Small Businesses in all communities so all communities can benefit from this legislation. Weve increased the size of express loans under this and i just want to complement the work of other working groups, take on the tax provisions. I was very pleased to work with senator wyden. The two of us worked on whats known as a retention credit which allows companies that have furloughed workers, to bring those workers back and get a credit up to 50 of that wage up to 10,000 as a tax credit in order to bring back those workers. For some Small Businesses that may be a better option than what ive outlined before in regards to the two and half months of aid based upon payroll. You have a choice. Youu can do better under retention credit, new credit, use credit. If not, use the other. Small businesses are given more flexibility thank you, senator wyden for helping us. I also want to acknowledge senator warner who was very instrumental in getting that provision adopted. So, madam president , you see there is a whole range of tools in here to keep Small Businesses operating. Pay the workers of the dont have to reinvent their employers, employees after this crisis is over, that they can keep qualified people employed. They get the paychecks and our economy is ready to get back now, there are many other provisions t in this bill including the cash payment under the irs, 1200 per taxpayer that will help in this regard. When you put this all together, this is a robust package that brings our economy, to hold our so that they can perform at a level that its ready to take off again without the direct consequence of people not having income in order to pay their bills. Through the Small Business provisions, Small Business owners can keep their businesses intact. Through on upon insurance, those are laid off or furloughed can get their salaries. The irs checks people have some cash. Through some of thesems other programs we are providing relief like delaying the time and paying employer share of the fica taxes. You put that altogether, there is aot lot of help out here to keep our economy going during this crisis, with particular focus on the workers and on Small Business. Last point i should point out the selfemployed, they gig economy are fullyre covered undr Small Business provision. They are fully covered under the ui provisions. Were trying to make sure that we preserve our economy, that we preserve workers and the families and their abilities to pay the bills. And i think when you take a look at this whole package, the challenge will be to get the information out to our constituents come to these businesses, to these workers so they know whats in this package so that they can act now. Because quite frankly people are desperate. Companies are desperate. When malls are close as they are in maryland and are operating a Small Business in that mall, have no business at all, you dont how youre going to make your next table. You have to make decisions today. Thats why its important that we vote on this bill today. We get it to the president is as possible. Get information out to the Small Businesses and to the workers and to all businesses that we are here to help keep them open, to keep the paychecks flowing, to keep ourg, economy moving, tt were in this together, were going to get c through this perd of time. Our economy is going to come back and we want you to know to take advantage of these tools so that we can minimize the adverse impact of the coronavirus. Mr. President , when a process of passing a very large economic package to stabilize our economy the middle of all this happening in culminating globally and in the United States. Part of the package were passing today is t almost identical to what we brought actually sunday night which was a bipartisan proposal which ranking members and chairman of all the major committees had worked together to be able to get this done. They key elements of it are still there. Im upon insurancet for americs including 600 plusup to go through the process. That is support t for Small Business that will pay the payroll per we do