Senate Passes PPP Loan Application Extension Bill

The Senate passed Thursday the PPP Extension Act of 2021, bipartisan legislation that would extend the PPP loan application deadline from March 31 to May 31.

“The additional 60 days provided by the PPP Extension Act will greatly help small businesses, non-profits and the CPAs that serve them complete existing and file new PPP loan applications,” AICPA said Thursday in a statement.

The House passed the bill on March 17.

The extension “gives the SBA time to update its E-Tran system and issue new guidance,” AICPA said. “In addition, AICPA and its members look forward to Congress also providing retroactive relief to Schedule C filers, who are the smallest of the small businesses.”

During a Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship hearing on Wednesday, “the SBA noted that two million PPP applications have been held up by error codes and approximately 190,000 applications remain unapproved,” AICPA said. “This reinforces the great need for extending the loan application deadline.”

Rob Nichols, president and CEO of the American Bankers Association, urged President Joe Biden “to quickly sign it into law.”

The legislation “will help ensure that small businesses that have already applied for a PPP loan will be able to get that loan processed, rather than risk seeing this program end before their paperwork can be completed,” Nichols said Thursday in a statement. “It will also provide more time for still-struggling small businesses that have not yet applied for a PPP loan to do so.”

Banks of all sizes, Nichols added, “have stepped up during the pandemic to strongly support this unprecedented program and deliver more than $675 billion in PPP loans to small businesses, helping to support millions of jobs in the process. We will continue to work in partnership with the SBA to identify and address operational issues that are keeping the program from reaching its full potential.”