Press Release
Posted:
Washington – Today Rep. Mike Thompson (CA-05) voted to pass the Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act, the fourth bill in a series of packages to provide health care resources and economic relief from the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic. Thompson released the following statement regarding his vote.
“Today I voted to pass the Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act, a bill to put more funding into the programs that help support small businesses that have been impacted by the Coronavirus and support the hospitals and health care workers who are on the front lines. It’s incredibly frustrating that Senate Republicans stalled negotiations for so long without offering improvements to help small businesses who need funding quickly and efficiently.
“This is by no means a perfect bill and not what I would have written. It falls short in a few major areas, in particular it does not include funding for our state and local governments. Cities and towns in our district are leading the charge to help keep people safe and they need support. This bill also does not include enough funding for the programs that are helping to keep small business afloat, including the Paycheck Protection Program.
“However, our district is hurting and needs support as fast as possible. The bill does include improvements negotiated by Democrats, including additional funding for hospitals and testing. We also secured some improvements to the Paycheck Protection Program and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program. So today I voted to pass this bill to get support to the people who need it right away and tomorrow I will continue fighting for the other things we need to support our communities. We must get badly needed relief to our communities.”
You can click here to read a summary of the Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act and you can click here to watch Thompson’s remarks on the House floor in support of this bill.