On Tuesday, June 30, 2020, the U.S. Senate passed a measure to extend the deadline to apply for PPP loans from the SBA by unanimous vote. The application period ended at midnight on June 30; the extension approved would be for 5 weeks, ending August 8, 2020.

While the SBA has approved nearly 4.9 million PPP loans, aggregating more than $520 billion, roughly $129 billion in PPP loan funds remained undistributed at 5:00 PM on Tuesday.

These loans are available to small businesses which were in operation as of February 15, 2020, and have 500 or fewer employees. Self-employed individuals, sole proprietorships and independent contractors are all eligible for PPP loans.

We think it is a great idea to extend the deadline, since funds are available and some businesses which were reluctant to apply at first but changed their minds may have felt the deadline loomed too close, and didn’t apply.

However, this is only a Senate measure at present. The extension would need approval from the U.S. House of Representatives, and, of course, the President’s signature.

And both houses of Congress are set to adjourn for a two-week recess by the end of this week, so action would need to be very swift indeed if the extension were to be put in place before the 4th of July holiday.

While we would definitely welcome full enactment of the 5-week extension this week, we are not holding our breath. Still, we are heartened that our small businesses are still a Congressional focus.

Stay tuned for further developments, which will be coming!

If you have questions on the PPP, please click here to email us directly – we are here to help.

Until next Wednesday –

Peace,

Eric