Today Congresswoman María Elvira Salazar (FL-27) and Congresswoman Sharice Davids (KS-03) introduced the COVID Economic Injury Disaster Loan Relief Act (H.R. 1533) alongside Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (FL-25), Rep. Angie Craig (MN-02), and Rep. Dan Meuser (PA-09). This bipartisan bill extends the time to repay Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) loans, taken in response to COVID-19, for an extra year since the COVID-19 pandemic is still ongoing.
"Many of our local job creators applied for EIDL loans at the beginning of the outbreak and yet the pandemic has continued to take a devastating toll on our small businesses," said Congresswoman Salazar. "We cannot force our struggling small business owners to repay these loans at a time when many are barely able to keep their doors open. I am proud to introduce this bipartisan bill that will provide our local job creators with an extra year before they have to make their first loan repayments."
"For almost one year now, the coronavirus pandemic has devastated our communities, and especially the futures of our small businesses. Even with the vaccine rollout speeding up, the pandemic is far from over, and our small businesses need all the help they can get to make it through. I'm proud to introduce this legislation with Rep. Salazar to delay repayment on EIDL loans for the small businesses that form the backbone of our community and economy," said Representative Sharice Davids (KS-03).
Currently, EIDL loan recipients must start paying their loans back after 1 year. When business owners initially drew these loans in response to the COVID-19 disaster, no one anticipated that we would still be facing a global pandemic a year later. Now the first payments of many loan recipients are due in March and April of 2021, but many local job creators have not been able to grow or recover while the pandemic is still raging. This extension is critical so that small business owners who took out a loan during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic do not have to start making payments until at least 2022.
Congresswoman Salazar represents Florida's beautiful 27th Congressional district which includes most of the City of Miami, its suburbs, and the beaches. She currently serves on the Small Business Committee and the Committee on Foreign Affairs.
Original source can be found here.
