TAMPA, Fla (WFLA)- President Trump signed a $900 billion coronavirus relief and stimulus package into law Sunday night, sparing the country from a government shutdown and among other things, extending the Paycheck Protection Program for small businesses that continue to struggle as the pandemic continues to keep people home.
The newest relief package will provide $325 billion in aid to small businesses, with $284.5 billion of that going to the Paycheck Protection Program.
Though the maximum loans are significantly lower than before— $2 million compared to $10 million— and businesses can only apply if they have less than 300 employees, this round of PPP loans will be similar in many ways to the first round of loans.
Business owners will have to use at least 60 percent of the loan toward payroll between eight and 24 weeks of loan disbursement.
Deadlines for this round of Paycheck Protection Program loans will be March 31.
During the first round of Paycheck Protection Program loans, nearly 404,000 loans worth more than $32 billion were distributed across Florida.
Earlier this year, more than 80,400 Paycheck Protection Program loans were approved in the Tampa Bay area totaling $6.6 billion.
Here are the businesses that collected the most from the first round of PPP loans:
LATEST ON THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC:
- Hillsborough County seniors concerned about securing second dose of COVID-19 vaccine
- Third stimulus checks: Democratic critic of larger direct payments softens stance
- Florida coronavirus: State reports 9,816 new cases, 308 new hospitalizations
- Dozens of Kansas psychiatrist’s ineligible ’employees’ cut line to get COVID vaccine before those at risk
- Florida leads nation in cases of new COVID variant, CDC data shows
