WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) on Thursday released the following statement after the U.S. House of Representatives passed additional funding for small businesses, our health care system, and to increase testing and contact tracing capacity. This legislation funding specifically designated for community banks and small lenders to ensure that Paycheck Protection Program funds are actually reaching small businesses. The Senate passed the legislation by unanimous consent (UC) on Tuesday.

“I’m glad to support this bipartisan agreement to get emergency funding out the door so that our small businesses in Connecticut can pay their employees and stay afloat. It’s especially important that we were able to set aside dedicated funding to community banks and small lenders, since far too many Paycheck Protection Program funds went to well-connected large corporations instead of the true small businesses this was intended to rescue. Frankly, the reform we made in this measure didn’t go far enough for me—I would have rather seen more rules established that guarantee more funds go to sole proprietorships, very small businesses, and minority-owned companies. But we couldn’t delay getting the next round of funding out the door, so I will continue to fight for these reforms,” said Murphy.

Murphy continued: “We’re not done yet. Congress must come together to pass another major stimulus package to make sure state and local governments have what they need to survive this crisis, send critical relief to Americans who are struggling, and federalize the medical supply chain to get critical goods to places they’re needed most.”

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