President Joe Biden signed the PPP Extension Act of 2021 into law Tuesday afternoon after the Senate voted overwhelmingly to pass the bill last Thursday, which extends the loan application deadline from March 31 to May 31. The law also gives the Small Business Administration an extra 30 days (through June 30) to process applications.
“Today I am proud to sign the extension for the second round of PPP,” Biden said as he signed the bill into law on Tuesday. “It is a bipartisan accomplishment. Nearly 90,000 businesses are still in line and without someone signing this bill today there are hundreds of thousands of people that could lose their job.”
The deadline extension bill was passed in the House by a vote of 415 to 3 and was approved in the Senate last Thursday by a vote of 92 to 7.
Biden went on to say that so far, 3.6 million PPP loans have been awarded by the SBA, 3.3 million of which went to businesses with fewer than 20 employees.
The President had also announced on Feb. 22 that starting Feb. 24 for a two-week period, only businesses with fewer than 20 employees would be able to apply for PPP loans. He also had tweaked the “loan calculation formula” to help sole proprietors, independent contractors, and self-employed business owners receive more support; set aside $1 billion for businesses without employees in low and moderate-income areas; and lifted some restrictions that made it difficult for immigrants and former felons to apply for loans.
In addition to a deadline extension of loan applications for all small businesses, the SBA announced Tuesday on Twitter that applicants to the Restaurant Revitalization Fund grants program would not need to sign up for SAM.gov (System for Award Management) or have a DUNS number ( Data Universal Numbering System).
Although the SBA has not yet opened up applications, last week, Patrick Kelley, associate administrator for the SBA’s Office of Capital Access said that will likely happen sometime in April.
When applications do open up, eligible restaurant operators will be able to find more information here.
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