Today, Rep. Cindy Axne (IA-03) announced she is cosponsoring and advocating for bipartisan legislation that will ensure farmers, ranchers, and self-employed small businesses can receive the maximum forgivable loan amount through the Paycheck Protection Program.
The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) Equity Act of 2021 would allow farmers, ranchers, and self-employed individuals to retroactively recalculate their loans to receive the full loan amount available, regardless of their previous loan status. Previous changes to the Paycheck Protection Program allowed certain businesses to receive larger loans based on gross income rather than net profits, but had limitations on retroactivity, not allowing them to get larger loans if their PPP loan had already been forgiven.
“I’m proud of the changes we’ve made over the last few months to help our farmers, ranchers, and self-employed individuals benefit from PPP loans, which have kept many businesses afloat during this last year. However, too many of them have been unable to get the full amount they’re eligible for simply because they applied too early or already had their loan forgiven,” said Rep. Cindy Axne. “This bipartisan, commonsense legislation will give farmers, ranchers, and self-employed individuals access to the full PPP funds to which they are entitled.”
The bill was introduced last week by Representatives Abigail Spanberger (VA-07) and Ashley Hinson (IA-01) and is endorsed by the National Federation of Independent Businesses.
Related Work:
Rep. Axne has worked hard to ensure PPP loans have been distributed equitably to small businesses and to Iowa’s rural communities since the very beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Rep. Axne fought for Iowa’s small businesses last summer when she co-sponsored the Prioritized Paycheck Protection Program Act, which allowed businesses with 100 or fewer employees to apply for a second PPP loan, which was finally passed into law in December.
Last year, Rep. Axne urged House committee leaders to provide specific assistance to Iowa’s rural communities as mandatory closures due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) were extended.
Rep. Axne also previously led her colleagues in a letter to the Department of Treasury and Small Business Administration urging them to provide an explanation as to why they hadn’t approved PPP loan forgiveness applications, which resulted in a simplified application process.
Original source can be found here.
