Senator Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican and the chairman of the Senate Small Business Committee, said he’s considering allowing chambers of commerce to apply for PPP funds and setting funds aside for businesses with fewer than 10 employees.
Senator Ben Cardin of Maryland and other Senate Democrats have introduced a bill to allow a second loan for borrowers with fewer than 100 employees that lost at least half of their revenue because of the pandemic.
Similar bills are being negotiated in the House.
Loan Data
Representative Nydia Velazquez, chairwoman of the House Small Business Committee, said lawmakers and the public need to see how PPP funds have been used and how the smallest and most disadvantaged companies have fared. Velazquez and other lawmakers have been demanding data on the loans from the SBA and Treasury, which jointly run the PPP.
Mnuchin and SBA Administrator Jovita Carranza initially refused to provide the data on grounds it involved private company information. But they wrote to lawmakers last week saying they expected to provide the data by the end of this week.
Even as lawmakers are seeking changes or improvements, supporters credit the current program with keeping tens of millions of workers employed during the pandemic and contributing to the surprising increase of 2.5 million U.S. jobs in May.
But potentially millions of small business owners didn’t use the program because of concerns about standards they needed to meet to ensure the loans would be forgivable, they weren’t aware of the program or were unable to access it.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.