Small enterprises still in shock coronavirus pandemic and related economic lockdown could receive a second loan under the Paycheck Protection Program under new legislation introduced by a group of Democratic lawmakers.
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the Priority Paycheque Protection Program Act, presented Thursday by Senses Ben Cardin, D-Md., Chris Coons, D-Del., and Jeanne Shaheen, DN.H., would allow companies with fewer than 100 employees to tap the taxpayer-backed fund for the second time if they can prove that they lost half of their income due to the virus outbreak.
Eligible businesses must have exhausted their initial PPP loan or be able to spend the aid in order to qualify for another loan. The bill would also extend the loan application deadline for businesses from June 30 to December 30 or later. A related bill has been introduced in the House.
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“Many small businesses will continue to struggle in the weeks and months to come,” Cardin, the senior member of the Senate Small Business Committee, said in a statement. “Congress must once again act urgently to support our most vulnerable small businesses during this crisis, so that our economy can recover as quickly as possible from the pandemic. “
Large publicly traded businesses are not eligible to tap into the program again, and hospitality and accommodation businesses with more than one location are limited to a total loan amount of $ 2 million. At least $ 25 billion of the fund would be earmarked for employers with 10 or fewer workers, as well as small businesses in rural and underserved communities.
Under the assistance program, businesses can receive up to $ 10 million in taxpayer-funded loans that will be canceled by the federal government if at least 60% is spent on maintaining the payroll. As of Friday, more than 4.5 million loans worth nearly $ 514 billion had been distributed through the program. Congress allocated about $ 600 billion to the PPP, leaving about $ 100 billion in the fund.
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But lawmakers and small businesses are calling for more help, or more time, to be needed to ensure there isn’t a wave of bankruptcies. There are approximately 30 million small businesses in the United States that employ approximately 58.9 million workers, or roughly half of the total American workforce.
The bill’s introduction comes as Congress and the White House grapple with a fourth coronavirus aid program to help the U.S. economy, still affected by the lockdown, recover. Even as states gradually begin to reopen their economies and life slowly begins to return to normal, unemployment remains at a decades-high level with millions of Americans still out of work.
The Trump administration has previously said it has no plans to adopt further relief measures until at least early July, although the Senate is not expected to return from its two-week vacation until July 20.
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Some options currently being considered in the White House include reduced payroll taxes, liability protections for businesses reopening during the outbreak, tax deductions or write-offs for people taking vacations for a set period and returning to the bonus work for unemployed Americans returning to work.
So far, Congress has passed three massive stimulus packages totaling nearly $ 3 trillion to ease the economic pain caused by the virus outbreak, including the $ 2.2 trillion CARES bill in March that took established the PPP.
“We need to move from rescue aid to incentives for longer-term economic growth,” White House senior economic adviser Larry Kudlow told FOX Business in early June.
