Here's what you need to know today:
1. China's Coronavirus Lies Pile Up “A Department of Homeland Security analysis has concluded that China hid the early spread of the coronavirus so it could hoard medical equipment, keeping it from other countries that would have bought it if they had known of the danger that was coming their way from Wuhan,” the Washington Examiner editorial board writes. “Specifically, DHS found, with 95% statistical confidence, that changes to China's personal protective equipment import and export behavior were highly abnormal and not random.” Click here to read more 2. As a result of the Trump Administration’s efforts, the Paycheck Protection Program is effectively providing a lifeline to America’s small businesses and their employees during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Since the launch of the Paycheck Protection Program, SBA has processed over 3.8 million loans for more than half a trillion dollars of economic support in less than one month.
Nearly 500,000 of the PPP loans were made by lenders with less than $1 billion in assets and non-bank lenders.
President Trump secured an additional $320 billion in funding to ensure a second round of PPP relief would be accessible for America’s small businesses. In the second round of the Paycheck Protection Program:
2.2 million loans have been processed, worth more than $175 billion. The average loan is $79,000, exhibiting that PPP is truly aiding the smallest of small businesses.
Please click here for more information: PPP Report: Second Round
Senator Declan O'Scanlon: NJ's COVID-19 Federal Grant Strategy is Failing
Gov. Murphy has been raising concerns that almost $2 billion from a federal grant provided to New Jersey under the federal CARE Act will do nothing to help offset New Jersey's massive loss of state budget revenues due to COVID-19. He has not released the funds and is hoping to use them for nothing more than replacing lost state revenue. Read more...