Title: Local News and Emergency Information Act of 2020
Policy area: Commerce

Summary:
Local News and Emergency Information Act of 2020
This bill expands the Paycheck Protection Program, established to support small businesses in response to COVID-19 (i.e., coronavirus disease 2019), to include certain newspaper publishers, radio stations, and television broadcasters.
Specifically, such a media purveyor is eligible to receive a paycheck protection loan if (1) the individual physical location that applies for the loan does not exceed Small Business Administration size standards (up to 1,000 employees for newspaper publishers and $41.5 million in gross receipts for radio and television broadcasters); and (2) the proceeds of the loan are used to support the continued provision of local news, information, content, or emergency information. Such a recipient may not remit any portion of a paycheck protection loan to any entity other than the individual physical location that is the loan's intended recipient.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3718 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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116th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 3718

To expand the waiver of affiliation rules for certain business concerns 
      with more than 1 physical location, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                              May 13, 2020

 Ms. Cantwell (for herself, Mr. Boozman, Ms. Klobuchar, Ms. Ernst, and 
 Mr. Schumer) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
    referred to the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To expand the waiver of affiliation rules for certain business concerns 
      with more than 1 physical location, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Local News and Emergency Information 
Act of 2020''.

SEC. 2. AMENDMENTS TO THE PAYCHECK PROTECTION PROGRAM.

    Section 7(a)(36)(D) of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 
636(a)(36)(D)) is amended--
            (1) in clause (iii)--
                    (A) by striking ``business concern that employs'' 
                and inserting the following: ``business concern that--
                                    ``(I) employs'';
                    (B) in subclause (I), by striking the period at the 
                end and inserting ``; or''; and
                    (C) by adding at the end the following:
                                    ``(II) is assigned a North American 
                                Industry Classification System code 
                                beginning with 511110, 515112, or 
                                515120 at the time of disbursal shall 
                                be eligible to receive a covered loan 
                                for business expenses of the business 
                                concern that are associated with an 
                                individual physical location of that 
                                business concern, provided that--
                                            ``(aa) the proceeds of the 
                                        loan are used to support 
                                        expenses associated with the 
                                        continued provision of local 
                                        news, information, content, or 
                                        emergency information; and
                                            ``(bb) at the time of 
                                        disbursal, the individual 
                                        physical location does not 
                                        exceed the size standard 
                                        established by the 
                                        Administrator for the 
                                        applicable code.'';
            (2) in clause (iv)--
                    (A) in subclause (II), by striking ``and'' at the 
                end;
                    (B) in subclause (III), by striking the period at 
                the end and inserting ``; and''; and
                    (C) by adding at the end the following:
                                    ``(IV) an individual physical 
                                location of a business concern that, as 
                                of the date on which the covered loan 
                                is disbursed, is assigned a North 
                                American Industry Classification System 
                                code beginning with 511110, 515112, or 
                                515120 and does not exceed the size 
                                standard established by the 
                                Administrator for the applicable code, 
                                provided that, as a condition of the 
                                waiver under this subclause, the 
                                business concern shall not pay, 
                                distribute, or otherwise provide the 
                                covered loan or any portion of the 
                                covered loan to any other entity other 
                                than the individual physical location 
                                that is the intended recipient of the 
                                covered loan.''; and
            (3) by adding at the end the following:
                            ``(vii) Treatment of certain business 
                        concerns.--
                                    ``(I) In general.--A business 
                                concern that is assigned a North 
                                American Industry Classification System 
                                Code beginning with 511110, 515112, or 
                                515120 at the time of disbursal of a 
                                covered loan and is a franchisee or 
                                affiliate of or owned or controlled by 
                                a parent company or an investment 
                                company, or management thereof, shall 
                                be treated as an independent, non-
                                affiliated entity upon certification to 
                                the Administrator that the request for 
                                the covered loan is necessary to 
                                support expenses associated with the 
                                continued provision of local news, 
                                information, content, or emergency 
                                information.
                                    ``(II) Report.--The Administrator 
                                and the Secretary of the Treasury shall 
                                submit to the Committee on Small 
                                Business and Entrepreneurship of the 
                                Senate, the Committee on Small Business 
                                of the House of Representatives, and 
                                the Congressional Oversight Commission 
                                established under section 4020 of 
                                division B of the CARES Act (Public Law 
                                116-136) a report regarding covered 
                                loans made to business concerns 
                                described in subclause (I).''.
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