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Alfredo Ortiz: Congress’s Backdoor Change to Paycheck Protection Program Is Shameful
by Alfredo Ortiz

Small businesses are being hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, as research from Harvard shows small business revenue in November was 32 percent lower than in January. The last thing these struggling businesses need is for the banking industry to capture relief funds meant to help them meet payroll.

Unfortunately, that is what Congress is doing in the latest COVID relief bill, which rewrites the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) after the fact to help banks at the expense of small businesses. In essence, Section 340 on page 2202 (hidden deep in the bill to avoid scrutiny) shifts paying agent fees from the banks who were supposed to pay small business agents, who help companies obtain and comply with PPP loans, to the small businesses themselves who hadn’t planned for this extra expense.

Previous legislation explicitly tasked the banks with paying these fees, not small businesses, because the loans are meant to reduce small businesses’ costs. Forcing entrepreneurs to pay these loans out of pocket undermines the PPP’s intent and hurts businesses that are barely staying open.

Continues:

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/12/24/alfredo-ortiz-congresss-backdoor-change-to-paycheck-protection-program-is-shameful/

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