With Congress deadlocked on a COVID-19 relief bill, the ABA and more than 100 financial service, business and nonprofit trades today urged lawmakers to pass standalone Paycheck Protection Program loan forgiveness legislation that would streamline the process for small business borrowers.
In a letter to House and Senate leaders, the groups called on lawmakers to support two recently introduced bills—S. 4117, sponsored by Sens. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), and H.R. 7777, a House companion bill sponsored by Reps. Chrissy Houlahan (D-Pa.) and Fred Upton (R-Mich.). Both bills would forgive PPP loans of less than $150,000 upon the borrower’s completion of a simple, one-page forgiveness document.
“S. 4117 and H.R. 7777 ensure those businesses can focus their time, energy, and resources back into their business and communities instead of allocating significant time and resources into completing complex forgiveness forms,” the groups wrote, noting that PPP loans of $150,000 and less account for about 87% of total recipients but less than 28% of loan dollars. “Expediting the loan forgiveness process for many of these hard-hit businesses would save more than $7 billion and hours of paperwork.”
