Last week week, U.S. Senators Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Kevin Cramer (R-ND) brought up their bipartisan legislation to provide full forgiveness of PPP loans of $150,000 or less for small businesses for a vote on the Senate floor. Unfortunately, this commonsense reform for employers was blocked by Senate Democrats at the direction of Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY).
Earlier this year, Senator Tillis and his colleagues, including Democrat Senators Bob Menendez (D-NY) and Krysten Sinema (D-AZ), introduced the Paycheck Protection Small Business Forgiveness Act to ensure that small business owners have the peace of mind knowing their PPP loan will be forgiven as many still struggle to keep their doors open.
“In the spring, I was proud to support the CARES Act that included the Paycheck Protection Program so businesses in North Carolina could make payroll, keep employees on their benefits and health care, and try to weather the storm while closures were happening across the country, closing down businesses or dramatically reducing business,” said Senator Tillis. “More than 85 percent of all the loans were under $150,000, the Paycheck Protection Small Business Forgiveness Act would forgive those loans so small businesses can focus on staying open and protecting jobs. I'm disappointed Senate Democrats chose to block this legislation even though they know this is good legislation. We should pass it today, but Democrats are turning their backs on businesses and unfortunately, I think it's going to result in more people on unemployment and more businesses closing. I will continue to work as hard as I can to get this passed so we can protect North Carolinians from losing their jobs.”
The Payroll Protection Small Business Forgiveness Act would forgive PPP loans of less than $150,000 upon the borrower’s completion of a simple, one-page forgiveness document, and provide an expanded hold harmless provision that would cover the lender for the life of the loan cycle. Approximately 4.2 million loans were $150,000 or less and account for 86 percent of all PPP loans.