With the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program officially winding down tonight, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told the House Financial Services Committee today that the administration is working with lawmakers to repurpose the $135 billion of funding still left in the program. Mnuchin expressed hopes that that legislation could be passed “by the end of July.”
“I think there appears to be bipartisan support in the Senate to repurpose the $130 billion for PPP, extending it to business that are most hard-hit” and have seen revenues decline significantly, including hotels and restaurants, he said. He added that “we are going to work with Congress to make sure we can do whatever we can do to get everybody back to work that lost their job due to COVID.”
American Bankers Association President and CEO Rob Nichols weighed in earlier today on the expiration of the PPP, praising banks of all sizes for their efforts to step up and provide this critical financial lifeline to the nation’s small businesses. “According to the Treasury Department, the 4.8 million PPP loans supported an estimated 50 million jobs,” Nichols said. “Unfortunately, there are still too many Americans and too many businesses feeling economic pain from this pandemic. As PPP expires, America’s banks will continue to support their business customers and do their part to spur the economic recovery to come.”
