One day after the U.S. Senate approved a $2 trillion stimulus package to revive an economy hit hard by COVID-19, Sen. Elizabeth Warren hosted a conference call to outline how small businesses would benefit from federal aid.

“These are all really important investments that we need to make to address a public-health crisis that threatens to bring another Great Depression,” Warren said.

On March 23, Gov. Charlie Baker ordered all nonessential businesses in Massachusetts to close physical locations. Between March 15 and March 21, 147,992 people filed an initial claim for unemployment insurance in Massachusetts.

On Thursday, listeners — including small business owners — tuned in to hear Warren’s take on the stimulus bill.

“My thoughts are with everyone who’s on this call,” Warren said. “I know this is a time of health crisis, and there are a lot of people whose families are suffering, individuals who are suffering, and that you are also very anxious about your businesses at the same time.”

Warren then explained which sections of the economic stimulus bill would relieve small businesses struggling to survive the pandemic.

Payment Protection Program

A “big piece” of the stimulus bill is the Payment Protection Program, Warren said. The program would be funded with nearly $350 billion, and would provide small businesses with zero-fee loans of up to $10 million.

“We recognize that small businesses don’t know their economic future right now,” Warren said, “so this looks backward at your average payroll and says that you can borrow eight weeks of average payroll plus 25 percent” of that amount.

The loan would be forgiven if the business receiving it retains its employees and their salary levels, Warren said. If not, the loan must be repaid — but principal and interest would be deferred for up to a year, and all borrower’s fees would be waived.

The loans would have a maximum interest rate of 4% and no fees of any kind, Warren said.

Small businesses, both for-profit and nonprofit, would be eligible for the loans, including sole proprietors, independent contractors and self-employed individuals. Businesses with multiple physical locations would be eligible as long as no more than 500 employees work at each location.

“Basically, the test is, if you’ve got fewer than 500 employees, whether you’re a for-profit or a not-for-profit, you will be eligible for these loans,” Warren said.

The loans could be used to fund anything business-related, including employees’ salaries, paid sick leave, mortgage payments and more.

“You will be asked to make a good-faith certification that the loan is necessary due to the uncertainty of the current economic condition, and that you will use the funds to retain workers and maintain payroll, or to pay the lease, or to make utility payments — in other words, the kind of things that keep the business going,” Warren said.

While the loans would be funded through the Small Business Administration, applications would be submitted through local banks. Applicants would need to provide eight weeks of payroll documentation.

“This is temporary assistance,” Warren said, adding that “the whole idea behind it is to try to get money into your hands as quickly as possible.”

SBA loans

In addition, the stimulus package includes $10 billion in emergency grants, which would allow the SBA to advance $10,000 to small businesses and nonprofits that apply for economic-injury disaster loans.

Economic-injury disaster loans are SBA loans of up to $2 million, with interest rates of up to 3.75% for companies and 2.75% for nonprofits. They are used to pay any expenses “that could have been met had the disaster not occurred,” Warren said.

Applications for these loans can be submitted at local banks or lending institutions.

Businesses that receive the $10,000 advance would not have to pay it back — even if they are subsequently denied an economic-injury disaster loan, Warren said. The advance could be used in a variety of ways, from providing paid sick leave to paying business expenses like debt.

“The goal is for the $10,000 advance to be delivered to loan applicants within three days of processing — again, trying to move it out as quickly as possible,” Warren said.

The bill also includes $17 billion in funding for relief to those who already have SBA loans, including standard 7A, 504 and micro-loans.

“Under this new provision, the SBA will cover all loan payments for existing SBA borrowers, including principal, interest and fees for six months,” Warren said.

Those who take out an SBA loan within six months of the bill being signed would be eligible for six months of payments.

Unemployment insurance

The stimulus bill would extended unemployment protections “far beyond anything we’ve done before,” Warren said.

Traditional employees would be covered, as well as self-employed workers, gig workers, independent contractors, part-time workers, and those with limited work histories, Warren explained. The bill would provide an additional $600 per week on top of regular unemployment benefits for up to four months.

“That means for the average worker in Massachusetts …100 percent of lost income will be replaced for the next four months,” Warren said. “For anyone who was a below-median-income worker, their coverage will actually be better than 100 percent of income replaced.

“The whole idea here is twofold: to give the maximum amount of protection to people during the time of this crisis, but also, quite frankly, to get more money out into the economy, and we hope build up demand, which will be important to you and getting your businesses restarted and up and running again,” Warren said.