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Congresswoman Angie Craig Urgently Pushes For Additional Paycheck Protection Program Funds To Help Small Businesses

April 16, 2020

Today, U.S. Rep. Angie Craig sent an urgent letter to House and Senate Leadership asking them to immediately provide additional funding for the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans to support small businesses. We also need to work together to provide additional assistance to hospitals, health care centers, local governments and continue to do everything we can to support hard working Minnesotans.

"I am ready to vote on legislation today to get more support to Minnesota's small businesses quickly," said Rep. Angie Craig. "With the devastating news that funding for PPP loans has been depleted, I urge leadership and all of my colleagues to set any differences we may have aside and support the economic engines fueling main streets across our country. The cost of inaction is too high, American lives are at stake. Let's get this done right now."

You can view the text of the letter below.


Dear Speaker Pelosi, Leader McConnell, and Minority Leaders McCarthy and Schumer,

As a Member of the House Small Business Committee, I am writing to you regarding recent reports that the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) has run out of funds and is not accepting or approving any additional applications. This is simply unacceptable and should never have been allowed to happen. The program needs to be funded immediately if small businesses, nonprofits, and sole proprietorships in my district are going to stay afloat.

Millions of small business owners were counting on this program as they made critical business decisions over the past weeks, and their employees were counting on it to help make ends meet. It is unacceptable that the federal government is not upholding its commitment to these businesses and their employees. This is a time of incredible uncertainty, and the PPP was intended to step in and provide needed liquidity, but the lack of adequate funding is only adding to that uncertainty.

My constituents are counting on you to work together in bipartisan fashion and pass at least $250 billion in additional assistance to small businesses and nonprofits with common-sense improvements that will ensure all eligible small businesses can access this critical funding and are not turned away by lenders. I am hopeful that this can be accomplished through unanimous consent, but if not, I ask that you bring your respective chambers back into session immediately so we can pass this essential funding through a recorded vote.

Finally, given the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic, I am calling on all parties to ensure additional money is promptly allocated to our hospitals, community health centers and health systems – and to the state and local governments working closely with them to help us all get through this unprecedented crisis.

Thank you for your consideration of this extremely urgent request.

Sincerely,