U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-Md.), ranking member of the Senate Small Business Committee and a senior member of the Senate Finance Committee, issued a statement on the $2 trillion economic stimulus agreed to by Congressional leaders.

The stimulus package includes $377 billion in funding to support small businesses secured by Cardin, Small Business Committee Chairman Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Senate Aging Committee Chairwoman Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies.

“American small businesses are facing an existential threat. The unprecedented public health measures cities and states have taken to slow the spread of the COVID-19, while necessary to protect public health, are having a tremendous impact on small businesses in every community in America,” Ranking Member Cardin said. “Congress has a duty to ensure that America’s 30 million small businesses, and the 60 million people they employ, are not forced to bear the financial costs of keeping our communities safe on their own. I am grateful that Chairman Rubio, Senators Collins and Shaheen, and I were able to reach a bipartisan agreement to include $377 billion in support for small businesses in the stimulus.”

Prominent measures in the Keeping American Workers Employed and Paid Act and the COVID-19 RELIEF for Small Businesses Act of 2020 make up Division A of the stimulus, which is titled the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.