Customer Tamara Jenkins tries on a hat with Meeka Robinson Davis, owner of One-Of-A-Kind Hats, as Davis’ daughter Chrstiana Davis watches in the store in the Windsor Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, California on November 24, 2020.
Patrick T. Fallon | AFP | Getty Images
Small businesses got good news Tuesday when the House of Representatives voted to extend the paycheck protection program by two months.
The bill, the PPP Extension Act of 2021, passed the House with 415-3 votes. It would extend the program to May 31st instead of the current March 31st, and give the Small Business Administration an additional 30 days to process loans.
Next, the bill goes to the Senate, where it is expected to be approved. Majority Leader Charles Schumer, DN.Y., said Democrats want to pass the measure as soon as possible.
Last week, a bipartisan group that includes Chairman of the US Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship Ben Cardin, D-Md., Unveiled a companion to the bill in the Senate. Senator Susan Collins, R-Maine; and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, DN.H.
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“It is clear that the most vulnerable small businesses will need help after March 31, so we need to get this extension passed as soon as possible,” Senator Cardin said in a statement Thursday. “This common sense bipartisan bill will meet the continued demand for PPP loans by giving small businesses two more months to apply and SBAs an extra month to process loan applications until June 30th.”
Demand for a postponement of the PPP deadline has increased since the Biden administration announced changes to the program in February, including a 14-day priority application deadline for companies with fewer than 20 employees, an updated credit calculation formula for sole proprietorships, and new eligibility rules.
The goal of the exclusive application window and the new rules was to provide the smallest businesses, majority owned by women and minorities, with more forgivable funding.
However, the timing of the changes brought confusion and frustration to many, especially sole proprietorships who had been missing out on major loans for a few days. The SBA wasn’t ready to accept new applications from these companies until March 5th, so they only had a few weeks to take advantage of the change before March 31st.
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