CARES Act Loans Explained [VIDEO]

Our nation’s small businesses are facing an unprecedented economic disruption due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. On Friday, March 27, 2020, the President signed into law the CARES Act, which contains $376 billion in relief for American workers and small businesses. It is important to note that the goal of the government is to get these loans into the hands of small business owners in order to keep them going and be able to continue paying their employees. The loans are meant to address the loss in sales and ability to operate along with the corresponding inability to pay employees, rent, and other costs of doing business due to the pandemic. To that end, the SBA is trying to ease previous requirements for securing loans and attempting to make the process as simple as possible.

There are currently two types of loans available: Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL) and Paycheck Protection Loans (PPP). You can apply for both loans, but you can’t use funds from each loan for the same expenses such as payroll, rent, insurance, etc.

Matthew Wehring with the Small Business Development Center at Blinn College and Tammy Hall from The Sealy Chamber of Commerce joined us in the Austin County News Online studio to talk about the application process for both the EIDL and the PPP, as well as answer questions that were sent in by the community.