By Cary Zimmerman

On June 30, 2020, a bill was introduced in the U.S. Senate that would create a dramatically simpler forgiveness process under the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) for certain smaller PPP loans. Entitled the “Paycheck Protection Small Business Forgiveness Act” and introduced by Senators Kevin Cramer, Bob Menendez, Thom Tillis and Krysten Sinema of the Senate Banking Committee, the bill would amend the CARES Act to more easily provide for loan forgiveness to borrowers of PPP loans totaling $150,000 or less. The main objective of the bill is to alleviate the administrative and financial burden on small businesses and lenders in seeking PPP loan forgiveness.

The legislation proposes to grant full forgiveness to any borrower of a PPP loan of not more than $150,000 in size that submits a one-page online or paper form attesting that the borrower complied with PPP rules. These smaller loans tallied 3.7 million in number but account for 85% of all approved loans (but only 26% of total PPP funds delivered). The cost associated with the forgiveness application and review process is estimated to be $2,000 per small business and $500 per lender. In addition, lenders would be absolved of accountability in connection with the forgiveness of those loans for acting in reliance on the borrowers’ attestations. Borrowers would be subject to enforcement actions or penalties relating to loan origination, forgiveness or guarantee of a covered loan in the event of fraud or expenditure of covered loan process on unauthorized expenses.

We will monitor this legislation and provide further updates as necessary. Please reach out to Cary Zimmerman at caz@kjk.com or 216.736.7275 with any questions you have about the Paycheck Protection Program or other financial relief programs available to small businesses.