ALTA Supports House Bill to Help Small Businesses
August 4, 2020
ALTA joined a coalition of more than 140 trade groups representing small business borrowers and lenders asking Congress to streamline Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) forgiveness for the smallest borrowers.
In a letter, the coalition pushed for passage of the bipartisan Paycheck Protection Program Small Business Forgiveness Act (H.R. 7777), which was introduced by Reps. Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA) and Fred Upton (R-MI). A companion bill (S. 4117) was introduced in the Senate by Sens. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ).
H.R. 7777 would require the Small Business Administration (SBA) to develop a simplified one-page forgiveness application for borrowers of PPP loans that are less than $150,000. Rather than provide documentation of how the business used the funds, the borrower would have to provide an attestation that they spent the funds in accordance with PPP guidelines to retain employees. PPP loans of $150,000 and under account for 86 percent of total PPP recipients, but less than 27 percent of PPP loan dollars.
Expediting the loan forgiveness process for many of these hard-hit businesses will save more than $7 billion dollars and hours of paperwork. Based on statistics released in early July, roughly 81 percent of title companies that received PPP loans were provided $150,000 or less and would benefit from this bill.
The SBA plans to launch its forgiveness portal on Aug. 10. The portal is how lenders will seek SBA approval for their PPP-loan forgiveness decisions.
The deadline to apply for a PPP loan is Aug. 8.
Contact ALTA at 202-296-3671 or [email protected].