House members urge SBA to change PPP loan forgiveness policy

A group of House members led by Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-Pa.) sent an ICBA-supported letter to the Small Business Administration calling for common-sense reform to Paycheck Protection Program loan forgiveness.

Joint Letter: The letter calls on the SBA to forgive PPP loans in which the loan amounts were miscalculated due to good-faith errors. There are more than 300,000 PPP borrowers facing financial hardship due to good-faith loan amount miscalculations, it says.

ICBA Position: ICBA expressed support for the joint letter. “The SBA should forgive excess loan amounts in cases in which errors were made in good faith and the loans were used for forgivable uses, to avoid imposing unexpected debt on small businesses that did their part to pay employees and serve customers during the worst of the pandemic,” ICBA President and CEO Rebeca Romero Rainey said.

Background: According to SBA policy, excess loan amount errors that exceed the borrower’s correct maximum loan amount are not eligible for loan forgiveness and must be repaid, even if they were spent on forgivable uses during the covered period.