Just because the application deadline was set to run out on the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) at midnight Tuesday (June 30), the U.S. Senate extended the most popular measure for five more weeks, The New York Times reported.
If lawmakers had failed to act, a lot more than $130 billion would have gone unspent from the Small company Association's forgivable loan program to help companies endure the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, small- and medium-sized firms (SMBs) have until Aug. 8 to apply, the report said.
The bipartisan Senate bill was passed unanimously. It's intended to provide a lifeline to SMBs with fewer than 500 employees. It now would go to the Democratically-controlled House and must be signed by the president, The Times reported.
\”The resources exist,\” said Sen. Benjamin Cardin (D-Maryland), among the bill's authors. \”The need is there. We simply have to change the date.\”
On the Senate floor, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, a brand new Hampshire Democrat, said she arrived on Capitol Hill convinced lawmakers would not agree.
\”I'm pleased because there's an agreement,\” she said, based on the Hill.
The timing of the vote coincides with a brand new York Times map from the coronavirus that shows 35 states from Maine to Hawaii have seen the amount of new COVID-19 cases rise and 15 states including Ny, New Jersey and Massachusetts where new cases have stayed mostly the same. Only Maryland, Rhode Island and also the District of Columbia have experienced fewer new cases.
The vote follows a PYMNTS survey that revealed most SMB owners surveyed, more than 58 percent, said in early stages within the pandemic they weren't sure their businesses would survive.
Initially, Congress approved $349 billion in aid that was distributed in less than two weeks. Lawmakers later added another $320 billion to target SMBs.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida), chairman of the Small company Committee, told The Hill before the vote that he had no objections to extending the PPP's application deadline but that many SMBs that wanted to take advantage of the program have already tried on the extender.
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