05/29/2020

US House Passes Bill to Revise PPP

Almost since the PPP was created and implemented, federal regulators and elected officials have been hearing about some of the problems with the program as it was passed in the CARES Act. Late last week, US Senators were negotiating out a plan to revise the program but were not able to get unanimous consent needed to pass a bill and move the negotiations to the House.

On Tuesday, the US House of Representatives introduced their own bill, House Bill 7010, that offered these major changes to the PPP:

“(1) change the program sunset date from June 30, 2020 to December 31, 2020;

(2) extend the rehiring deadline for loan forgiveness from 8 to 24 weeks;

(3) lengthen the loan maturity date from 2 to 5 years;

(4) extend the rehiring deadline to align with the expiration of enhanced Unemployment Insurance;

(5) require employers to comply with coronavirus safety standards; and

(6) provide a “Borrower’s Choice” provision, which allows those who received PPP loans prior to enactment to choose for the covered period of their loan to either last 8 weeks or 24 weeks from origination.”

This bill was passed by US House on Thursday and will now be taken up by the Senat early next week. There are a few proposed revisions that will need to be worked out in the Senate and we hope can be resolved soon. You can read more about the other changes to the program included in the bill here.