WASHINGTON (NewsNation Now) — As the White House awaits Congress’ final approval of a massive coronavirus relief package, President Joe Biden is visiting a small business that’s received pandemic aid Tuesday.
Biden plans to visit a Washington, D.C., business that was given a loan from the Paycheck Protection Program, according to the White House. No other details about the business or the president’s visit have been released at this time.
The visit comes as the House of Representatives readies to pass Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill, a measure that the president has said he plans to sign immediately. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Monday that the chamber would do so by Wednesday morning, “at the latest.”
The Senate passed its version of the bill over the weekend, and the plan being sent to the House includes proposals ranging from fresh payments to households, aid for cash-strapped state and local governments, and money for schools.
But it also includes targeted small business grants totally roughly $15 billion, and around $7 billion to go toward Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) aid for nonprofits and digital news services. The legislation would also direct $25 billion into a new grant program for restaurants, and $1 billion to theaters, independent movie theaters and cultural institutions.
Last month, Biden announced changes to the coronavirus aid program for small businesses to attempt to reach smaller and minority-owned firms, sole proprietors and those with past criminal records that were left behind in previous rounds of aid.
For two weeks, the Small Business Administration was directed to only accept applications for forgivable PPP loans from firms with fewer than 20 employees. The changes are only good through the program’s expiration at the end of March.
When the PPP was launched in April 2020 at the height of coronavirus lockdowns, its initial $349 billion ran out in two weeks. Congress approved another $320 billion in May, but that round expired in August with about $130 billion in unused funds.
The program was re-launched on Jan. 19 with $284 billion in new funds from a coronavirus aid bill passed at the end of December, and a Biden administration official said about $150 billion of PPP money is still available.
Reuters contributed to this report.