Shaheen, Chabot call for action on new round of PPP loans

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and Rep. Steve Chabot (R-Ohio) on Thursday stressed the need for negotiators to strike a deal on the next round of coronavirus-relief funding to in order to protect small businesses hit hard by the pandemic.

Adding another round of funding for the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) has emerged as one of the few areas of bipartisan agreement amid talks between Democratic leaders and Trump administration officials. But if an extension deal is not reached, the PPP will stop granting loans on Aug. 8.

Speaking at The Hill’s virtual event on the future of small business, Chabot touted legislation from Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) that would set aside nearly $200 billion in forgivable PPP loans, offering a new set of funds to businesses that missed out on the first round and a second loan to those that can prove their revenue has declined 50 percent or more due to the pandemic.

Promoting greater outreach to businesses of color, many of which struggled to receive loans in the first round of funding, has also been a priority, Chabot said.

“A lot of the smallest of the small businesses, especially in minority and economically disadvantaged locations, they didn’t necessarily have a strong relationship with a bank or a credit union,” Chabot told The Hill’s Steve Clemons at the event sponsored by Wells Fargo. “So when it came to the PPP loans, they had a hard time. …At this point, we’re making sure that’s taken care of.”

Shaheen said the Prioritized Paycheck Protection Program Act, a bill she co-sponsored and that has been introduced by Democrats in both chambers, would utilize small business development centers and minority resource center outreach to direct more capital toward minority-owned businesses.

She said the worsening state of the economy should have given lawmakers a greater sense of urgency to reach a deal on coronavirus relief.

“We need action in Congress, and it’s unfortunate that we’re sitting here at the end of July when we got a package of legislation from the House, the HEROES Act, back in May,” Shaheen said, referring to the $3 trillion package House Democrats passed more than two months ago. “[Senate Majority Leader] Mitch McConnell didn’t even take up the effort to get another package out of the Senate until last week. It’s been way too long. We’ve got too many people who need help.”

Chabot said as the ranking member of the Small Business Committee, he has been in conversations with Chairwoman Rep. Nydia Velázquez (D-N.Y.) and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on oversight of the PPP program, so that if a new round of funding is passed, banks can avoid some of the problems that plagued the program in the spring, when major companies received funding and the application process proved challenging for firms that weren’t well connected.

Chabot said the next round would be smoother.

“The balance is making sure there’s no waste fraud and abuse and the companies that were intended to get them get them,” Chabot said. “On the other hand, we don’t want to make them so burdensome and overregulated that it’s impossible to get the loans out the door in real time.”