WASHINGTON – Today, Congressman Rob Wittman (VA-01) released this statement after voting in favor of the Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act:

“I supported this package today because it is critical to our continued recovery as a nation to the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, it provides much-needed funds to replenish the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) created by the CARES Act and provides additional monies to the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) grant program. Replenishing the fund is good news, but comes too late for many small businesses who were denied access to emergency loans since the PPP ran out of money due to the needless delay on negotiations. This is unacceptable and we must do better.

“It also provides an additional $75 billion for reimbursements to hospitals and $25 billion for necessary expenses to research, develop, validate, manufacture, purchase, administer, and expand capacity for COVID-19 tests. Testing is critically important to getting our economy back underway and to determine the true extent of this pandemic. I am happy we were able to get this done today in a strong, bipartisan fashion. We need to continue to work to accomplish the work of the people and lead America on the road back to recovery.”

The full text of the legislation can be read here. 

Congressman Wittman has been working constantly from the onset of the outbreak to keep constituents up to date on breaking information. He has been contacting constituents through telephone town hall meetings, daily emails, social media, and phone calls. Constituents should visit his specific coronavirus resources webpage (www.wittman.house.gov/coronavirus) to access a whole host of resources ranging from how to apply for unemployment, how to apply for a small business loan, ways to volunteer, and Virginia updates.