President Donald Trump signed on July 4 an extension of the paycheck protection program (PPP), giving small businesses an additional five weeks to apply for loans that are designed to provide them with payroll and expense relief amid the pandemic.

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This comes after the House unanimously voted to extend the deadline for small businesses to apply for the potentially forgivable loans a day after the original deadline for new applications had expired. Small businesses now have until Aug. 8 to apply for the loan. . . .

Over 4.8 million loans have been granted, totaling more than $520 billion, according to the Small Business Administration (SBA).

Lawmakers are currently negotiating ways to repurpose the leftover funds that would help smaller, hardest-hit businesses to tap into a more targeted second round of assistance. Senate Democrats have introduced a bill to permit small businesses to take out a second loan if they have 100 employees or fewer, including sole proprietorships and self-employed individuals, and have used up an initial PPP loan, or be on pace to exhaust the loan. . . .

Similarly, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), chairman of the Senate Small Business Committee, told reporters on June 30 that he’s working on a more targeted approach for the $130 billion. . . .

Rubio told reporters.

“I’m very concerned that a lot of minority businesses, particularly black-owned businesses already struggling to begin with, have access to capital.”

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin testified about repurposing the PPP program during a congressional hearing on June 30. . . .

The SBA’s inspector general said in a report (pdf) released in May that some rural, minority, and women-owned businesses may not have received loans as intended because the agency didn’t provide guidance about the prioritization of these borrowers.

(Excerpt from The Epoch Times. Written by Janita Kan.)

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