Last week, the president signed into law an $8.3 billion emergency funding bill to address the coronavirus outbreak. The measure includes $2.2 billion for health agencies to prepare for and prevent the spread of the virus in the United States, as well as more than $3 billion for vaccine research. The spending plan also allows for $1 billion in loan subsidies to be made available to help small businesses impacted by financial losses as a result of the coronavirus outbreak. This funding could enable the Small Business Administration to provide an estimated $7 billion in loans to these entities and provides $20 million to the SBA to administer these loans.

Democratic leadership in the House and Senate are also calling for additional legislation to help the economy including paid sick leave, enhanced unemployment insurance, expanding SNAP and WIC, increase medical response systems, reimbursement for coronavirus health costs, protections for frontline workers and widespread testing. 

ABC is continuing to monitor the government’s response to the virus and will provide updates on any additional legislation that Congress considers.