What’s in the $ 1.9 Trillion Bailout Plan for Small Businesses
The additional funds are intended to broaden loan eligibility to include more Nonprofits than previously qualified, as well as digital news services that provide local news and public health advice during the pandemic.
Despite the added funds, the legislation is not actually extending the program, which is currently set to expire on March 31.
This is a problem because there is already a backlog of applications still pending approval by the Small Business Administration. Under current rules, no loan approved by March 31 will be funded.
This means that banks must decide how long they want to accept new applications, since it now takes 24 to 48 hours for the bank to reach a response from the SBA on whether the submitted loan application has been approved.
In cases where requests are not approved, SBA may request more information, or Marking an employer as unqualified. Solving these issues may take days or weeks longer.
Bank of America, for example, stopped accepting new orders on Tuesday. “As the largest lender in the program since its inception, we have 30,000 requests in progress and want to allow sufficient time to complete the work and get each customer’s order through the SBA process by March 31,” a bank spokesperson said in an email to CNN Business.
Banking societies, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, and others have called on Congress to extend the program beyond March 31, or at least allow the SBA to continue processing loan approvals for applications submitted before March 31.
As of March 7, the SBA has provided 7.6 million PPP loans totaling $ 678.4 billion since Congress created the program last spring, according to data from the federal agency.
More money for restaurants, place operators, and minority-owned businesses
Other provisions in the US bailout aimed at helping small businesses include:
Special satisfaction for restaurants: The US bailout includes nearly $ 29 billion to create a grant program that provides direct relief to restaurants.
Additional Small Business Administration Funding: To help the Small Business Administration manage all of the new programs that have fallen within its purview as a result of the pandemic, the bill allocates another $ 1.325 billion to its budget.
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