WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito has co-sponsored the Paycheck Protection Small Business Forgiveness Act, bipartisan legislation to streamline forgiveness of Paycheck Protection Program loans for small businesses.
“Small businesses across our country are desperate to stay afloat after being forced to shut down to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. Sadly, red tape can prevent and discourage business owners from applying for PPP loans,” Capito (R-W.Va.) said. “The Paycheck Protection Small Business Forgiveness Act will help address this problem by eliminating unnecessarily complicated requirements and will help make the loan forgiveness process as painless as possible.”
The legislation was introduced July 1.
Capito says the Paycheck Protection Small Business Forgiveness Act includes forgiveness for PPP loans of $150,000 or less if the borrower submits a simple, one-page attestation form to the lender. It also ensures the lender will be held harmless from any enforcement action if the borrower’s attestation contained falsehoods.
She says the roughly 3.7 million PPP loans of $150,000 or less account for 85 percent of all PPP approved loans but only 26 percent of the PPP funds delivered.
According to Capito's office, the cost of applying for forgiveness for a PPP loan of this size is $2,000 for the small business and $500 for the lender. The bipartisan legislation introduced could save small businesses $7.4 billion and banks nearly $2 billion.
She says the legislation is supported by leading banking groups as well as members of the agricultural community.