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Congresswoman Angie Craig Authors Legislation Immediately Extending Paycheck Protection Program Loans for Small Businesses Through August 8th

July 1, 2020

Craig: “It’s Simple: Small Businesses Deserve Access to the Remaining Funds in the Paycheck Protection Program”

Rep. Angie Craig today introduced legislation that would immediately extend the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) for five weeks which will allow small businesses to continue to access COVID-19 relief funds.

Right now, the Paycheck Protection Program still has more than $130 billion in unused funds available to small businesses. This is in addition to Rep. Craig's Prioritized Paycheck Protection Program bill, which would allow the hardest-hit businesses to get a second loan and ensure comprehensive loan data is released to the public. The new bill allows the small businesses who have been deeply impacted to continue to access the funds designated to help them. The Senate passed this bill with unanimous bipartisan support on June 30th.

"It's simple: small businesses deserve access to the remaining funds in the Paycheck Protection Program. We've asked our Main Streets to be flexible and adapt to unprecedented impacts from a global pandemic, and today I ask my colleagues to do the same," said Rep. Craig.

Since COVID-19 has slowed down our economy, Rep. Craig has brought the needs of small businesses to the table by introducing the Small Business Relief Guaranteed Loan Program Act of 2020, which introduced the idea of interest-free, forgivable loans in response to COVID-19. The CARES Act included this concept to create the Paycheck Protection Program. She has taken several steps to improve these loans, including:

  • Making sure the program was funded by requesting and securing funds to replenish the SBA loan programs in the CARES Act.
  • Urging for flexibility by pushing leadership while they were crafting the Heroes Act to include PPP flexibility by way of extending the June 30th deadline to use loan funds, altering the 75/25 rule and extension of the loan repayment window, all of which were included in the Paycheck Protection Program Flexibility Act and the Heroes Act.
  • Calling for more transparency on whose PPP loans were getting approved and whose weren't, where the loans were going and how many of the recipients are minority, women or veteran-owned businesses in her co-sponsorship of the PPP Data Diversity and Accountability Act of 2020. Rep. Craig continues to push on making sure the Congressional small business relief programs are reaching mom and pop shops.
  • Recognizing the unique needs of each business, including the need for some businesses to purchase supplies and goods, which were previously tax exempted and began to be taxed for recipients of the PPP loan, Rep. Craig cosponsored the Protecting the Paycheck Protection Program Act of 2020, which would correct this and was included in the Heroes Act.
  • Continuouslypushing for answers from The Department of Treasury and the Small Business Administration on PPP to hold the agencies accountable for the program.