The American Bankers Association, the Bank Policy Institute and the Consumer Bankers Association today urged the Small Business Administration and the Treasury Department to create a one-page attestation form for Paycheck Protection Program borrowers with “de minimis” loan amounts to have their loans forgiven.
The groups noted that borrowers are still struggling even with the streamlined forgiveness application as well as frequent changes to the PPP and forgiveness requirements. “[M]ore and more borrowers are confronted with the need to use these lengthy forms, which takes a significant amount of time away from small business owners in running their daily business operations, when the real need is for an expedited process based on a de minimis exemption for loans under a specific dollar amount,” the groups wrote.
The groups said that Treasury and SBA have authority “to create a streamlined simple one-page attestation process for loan forgiveness” and urged them to make this process available for loans under an amount that could range from $150,000 to $350,000.
Meanwhile, in testimony to the House Small Business Committee today, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin urged Congress to consider forgiving smaller PPP loans by statute. He did not specify a loan threshold.
Mnuchin also said the Trump administration supports adding additional PPP funds and allowing the hardest-hit small businesses to apply for a second payment. “This time we need to have a revenue test and make sure money is going to businesses that have significant revenue declines,” Mnuchin said.
Also testifying before the committee, SBA Administrator Jovita Carranza said that SBA hopes to have a forgiveness portal—through which banks can apply for forgiveness on behalf of their clients—up and running by August. “We are trying to make it right the first time,” she said.