On July 27, ABC submitted comments to the U.S. Department of the Treasury and U.S. Small Business Administration on an interim final rule changing key provisions of the SBA’s Paycheck Protection Program and its loan forgiveness and loan review procedures.

While ABC expressed support for several changes to the PPP, such as decreasing the portion of a PPP loan that must be spent on payroll costs from 75% to 60% and increasing the timeline to spend PPP funds from eight weeks to 24 weeks, ABC also urged the agencies to take the following actions in order to further assist small businesses:

• Provide further guidance on when businesses should apply for loan forgiveness and when they are notified of their forgiveness status
• Issue further guidance on the PPP audit process
• Increase flexibility for employee retention requirements and loan forgiveness
• Provide further clarification of nonpayroll costs
• Refocus efforts to deliver PPP funds to underserved communities and minority businesses

ABC has followed the implementation and additional revisions to the PPP and submitted comments on a previous rulemaking related to the program.

ABC will continue to provide updates on the PPP and other SBA resources through Newsline and at abc.org/coronavirus.