The Senate unanimously approved the bill, called the Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act, after more than a week of negotiations between lawmakers and the Trump administration. The bill now heads to the House, which plans to approve it by April 23, according to CNBC.
The aid deal includes more than $320 billion for the Paycheck Protection Program for small businesses, $60 billion for the small-business disaster fund, $75 billion for hospitals and $25 billion to ramp up COVID-19 testing, according to NPR.
President Donald Trump tweeted April 21 that he intends to sign the bill.
Hospital groups are pleased with the additional funding but said there’s more work to be done.
“While we appreciate Congress taking swift action — more still needs to be done to defeat COVID,” Federation of American Hospitals President and CEO Chip Kahn said in a statement. “It is important that HHS distributes the funding in a timely, well-targeted fashion. And it remains mission-critical to reform the Medicare Accelerated Payment Program so that it does not impede hospitals’ ability to meet patient needs.”
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