President Donald Trump signed legislation that would give small businesses more time to spend funds borrowed through a federal emergency loan program and still qualify to have those loans forgiven after the Senate approved the bill last week.

The Senate passed the bill, which loosened restrictions on the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), by unanimous consent, which means any senator could have objected and forced and delayed the measure’s approval beyond Wednesday.

The House passed the measure late last month and did not hold any roll call votes last week, but held hearings that allowed members to participate remotely from their districts. 

The House is not scheduled to return to Washington to vote until June 30. But House Democratic leaders said they would return sooner if the Senate acts on another pandemic relief bill. The House passed a $3 trillion relief measure in mid-May, but House and Senate Republicans want to see how funds from the $2 trillion CARES Act, Congress’ primary pandemic response bill, enacted in late March, are being spent before moving another relief package. 

Sen. Jacky Rosen said on Twitter that she was “relieved” that the Senate acted. 

“The Paycheck Protection Program Flexibility Act of 2020 that passed today will make critical changes to help our small businesses stay on the path to recovery,” Rosen continued.

Senate Republican and Democratic leaders had been working to pass the measure since the House passed it late last month on 417 to 1 vote.

PPP

Under the measure, small businesses would have up to 24 weeks rather than eight to spend funds borrowed under the PPP and still qualify to have those loans forgiven.

Rosen signed onto a letter dated Thursday with seven other Senate Democrats calling on Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and SBA Administrator Jovita Carranza to implement a streamlined PPP loan forgiveness application, including reduced paperwork, for borrowers with loans of $100,000 or less.

The bill also allows small businesses to spend up to 40 percent of the loan funds on non-payroll expenses, such as rent, mortgages or utilities. Under current law, businesses are permitted to use up to 25 percent of their loan on non-payroll spending. The bill also would give businesses five years to repay the debt instead of two.

As of May 30, the PPP has lent more than $510 billion of the $660 billion that Congress has provided, according to the SBA. The initial $350 billion round of funding was exhausted in about two weeks.

Launched April 3 as part of the CARES Act, PPP provides loans to small businesses with fewer than 500 employees. Part of the appeal of the program is that loans used to pay certain expenses, such as keeping workers in place or to pay mortgage interest, rent and utilities, do not have to be repaid.

Hearings

Nevada’s congressional delegation took part in several hearings last week, including one Tuesday where Rosen pressed acting Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought over Trump’s threat to withhold funds from Nevada should the state go forward with a vote-by-mail plan. 

Vought, who appeared before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on his nomination to be permanent OMB director, said that Trump, while he had tweeted the threat, has not yet decided to go through with it. The acting OMB director said that he had no thoughts on what funds could be withheld since the agency has not looked into what discretion exists over which accounts.

Rosen also appeared at a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing Thursday on colleges reopening amid the coronavirus pandemic. Rosen discussed her concerns with the Department of Education (DOE) guidance regarding $6 billion from the CARES Act in emergency education funds that excludes some student veterans. She also underscored her belief that DACA recipients should also be eligible for the fund, which they are not, according to the DOE guidance. 

Under the guidance, only students eligible for student aid are eligible for CARES Act education funding. But the only way for colleges to practically know who is eligible for student aid is after students have filled out a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), a form completed by students to determine their eligibility for financial aid, according to Veterans Education Success, an advocacy group. The group cites an Education Department survey that showed in the 2015 through 2016 academic year, 36 percent of undergraduate student veterans did not file a FAFSA, compared to 29 percent of non-veterans. That is in part because veterans have access to GI Bill education benefits, though.

“This decision excludes student veterans, individuals who haven't completed the FAFSA application and DACA recipients, many of whom have the added financial burden of supporting their parents, their siblings, their children, being the first in their families to attend college,” Rosen said.

At a Senate Banking Committee hearing Tuesday, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto took Trump to task for using National Guard troops that fired rubber bullets and used flash grenades to clear a peaceful protest in front of the White House so he could walk to a nearby vandalized church to pose for pictures of him holding a Bible.

“Let me suggest you open the Bible and learn from its teachings and how we treat one another with respect, and we focus on what is necessary in this country right now,” Cortez Masto said.

At the hearing, which explored the implementation of parts of the CARES Act, Cortez Masto also raised concerns about the possibility of an extended period of high unemployment in Nevada following the pandemic and noted that the state took seven years to recover from the 2008 foreclosure crisis. She recommended that Congress look to help workers get new skills for those whose jobs may not come back.

“We know the impact,” Cortez Masto said of an economic downturn in the state. “And so to me and the entire delegation in Nevada, our goal is to make sure we are focused on our economy so we can spring back up much quicker.”

During a House Budget Committee hearing, Rep. Steven Horsford advocated for a provision in the relief package passed by the House last month that would increase the child tax credit for 2020 to $3,000 per child over six and create a new $3,600 per-child credit for those younger than age six. The credit, which currently maxes out at $2,000, would also be fully refundable under the House bill, meaning that if the filer's tax liability is less than the amount of the credit, that difference would be paid to the filer in a refund. Under current law, only $1,400 of the $2,000 credit is refundable.

Horsford, who also serves on the House Ways and Means Committee, argued that credit would help lower-income people harder hit by the economic bow delivered by the pandemic as opposed to a payroll tax cut, which has been proposed by the president. 

“In addition to addressing tax credits for children and families, helping workers, we also need to make sure that we help all small businesses, particularly our minority women-owned and veteran-owned businesses,” Horsford concluded.

Miscellany 

In the wake of the killing of George Floyd while in the custody of the Minneapolis Police Department, Cortez Masto and Rosen stood silently in Emancipation Hall in the Capitol in remembrance of the deaths of Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor. The officers that arrested Floyd have been charged with murder, as have Arbery’s assailants. The circumstances of Taylor’s shooting by police in her home is being investigated by the FBI. 

Floyd’s death has triggered protests around the country, as well as overseas. 

Rosen also held a “listening session” with faith leaders in Nevada’s African American community “on how I can be a better ally and how I can use my office to take action that will lead to long-term change -- change for the better, for all.” 

The two senators co-sponsored legislation that would provide grants to states that require fair and impartial police training and establish an “‘independent prosecution of law enforcement statute’ to review officers’ use of deadly force,” according to a release. 

Cortez Masto signed on to a bill, introduced by New Jersey Democratic Sen. Cory Booker, that would establish a $1.5 billion grant program to help grassroots organizations create and expand programs to fight the coronavirus and help improve health outcomes for communities of color, which have been hit hardest by the virus.

Rep. Dina Titus co-sponsored legislation to condemn police brutality, racial profiling and the excessive use of force. 

UNR received a $2.2 million grant from the National Science Foundation for research and development on wildfire prevention and oil spill clean-up.

Lastly, Rep. Mark Amodei said he’s considering letting some staff go now that there is a reduced workload that no longer includes giving tours and receiving visitors in his D.C. office as a result of the pandemic.

“We’re in the process of looking at our workload right now. I’m going, hey, I may be laying some people off. Because there’s nothing to do,” Amodei told CQ Roll Call.

For a full rundown of the measures the delegates supported or opposed this week, check out The Nevada Independent’s congressional vote tracker and other information below.

SEN. CATHERINE CORTEZ MASTO

Legislation co-sponsored:

S. 3877 – A bill to establish or expand programs to improve health equity regarding COVID-19 and reduce or eliminate inequities in the prevalence and health outcomes of COVID-19.

SEN. JACKY ROSEN

Legislation sponsored:

S. 3900 – A bill to direct the Secretary of Defense to carry out a grant program to support science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education in the Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps and for other purposes.

Legislation co-sponsored:

S. 3874 – A bill making additional supplemental appropriations for disaster relief requirements for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2020, and for other purposes.

Disclosure: The Nevada Independent has received a PPP loan.