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As the dust settles on the tumultuous journey of the final 2020 COVID-19 relief package, it is now clear that as employers with fewer than 500 employees move into 2021, they will no longer be
legally required to provide employees with leaves of absence under the two leave laws Congress passed last March as part of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA). Since April 1, both of these laws, the Emergency Paid Sick Leave Act (EPSLA) and the Emergency Family and Medical Leave Expansion Act (EFMLEA) have provided employees with paid and job-protected leaves of absence for qualifying COVID-19-related reasons, while providing employers with the ability to receive tax credits against the costs of these benefits. Both were enacted with Dec. 31, 2020, sunset provisions. Although Congress could still conceivably do so in later legislation, it has not extended FFCRA’s leave entitlements into 2021. This does not, however, end the story for employers who have been obligated
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On Dec. 21, 2020, Congress approved H.R. 133, referred to as the “Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021” (the Act). The legislation, signed into law by President Trump on Dec. 27, 2020, enhances and expands certain provisions of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act of 2020 (the CARES Act) (H.R. 748) and changes the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) administered by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Small Business Administration (SBA) by (i) authorizing additional liquidity for a second round of PPP loans and (ii) expanding PPP borrower eligibility in some instances, while implementing changes to PPP loans that will impact both new and existing PPP borrowers. The SBA is expected to issue new guidance in the coming days to address the particulars of the revitalized PPP and to answer questions that have arisen since the date of enactment of the Act.