WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday overwhelmingly approved legislation increasing the amount of time, to 24 weeks from the current eight-week deadline, for small businesses to use Paycheck Protection Program loans spurred by the coronavirus outbreak.
The legislation, passed by a vote of 417-1, now goes to the Senate for consideration. The program was created in March to help support small businesses during the pandemic and encourage them to retain their employees.
Last week, senators were working on a bipartisan bill extending the time frame to 16 weeks, instead of the eight weeks currently in the law or the 24 weeks embraced by the House.
If the Republican-controlled Senate passes a bill that varies in any way from the Democratic-led House’s, the two chambers would have to reconcile their differences before legislation could be sent to Republican President Donald Trump for signing into law.
The House bill comes as states have begun loosening quarantine efforts to tamp down the spread of the novel coronavirus, which has raced across the United States and the world.
As of Wednesday, at least 100,327 people in the United States had died from COVID-19, the illness caused by the highly contagious coronavirus. More than 1.7 million U.S. cases have been diagnosed.
(Reporting by Richard Cowan; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
