Dear Friend,

Congress recently passed and President Trump signed into law H.R. 7010, the Paycheck Protection Program Flexibility Act. This bill prospectively modifies the Paycheck Protection Program to better suit small business’ evolving circumstances.

Small business owners provided input on how PPP could be improved, and Congress acted to modify the program. The main reforms made by H.R. 7010 include:

• Extending PPP loans’ covered period to 24 weeks for existing and future loans
  • Businesses have 24 weeks to meet forgiveness requirements. 
  • Under the original program parameters, forgiveness requirements needed to have been met 8 weeks after loan origination.
• Reducing the required amount spent on payroll to 60% for existing and future loans
  • Businesses are now required to spend 60% of their PPP loan on payroll to qualify for full forgiveness. 
  • The original guidelines required businesses to spend 75% of their loan on payroll to qualify for full forgiveness of their PPP loan. 
• Increasing maturity period to 5 years for new loans
  
  • New PPP loans originated after enactment of H.R. 7010 will need to be paid back over five years if the loan is not forgiven entirely after the covered period. 
  • Loans originated before enactment of this law will still mature over 2 years if the loan is not forgiven.
  • This legislation does not change that all loans administered through the Paycheck Protection Program are forgivable.

SBA and Treasury will soon provide additional guidance and update existing FAQ sheets to reflect the modifications made by H.R. 7010. As information on implementing these changes, especially related to existing PPP loans, becomes available our office will provide additional updates.

More than 150,000 businesses in Pennsylvania have received forgivable loans through the Paycheck Protection Program. These modification will help ensure it achieves its goal to help small businesses like yours weather this economic slowdown. I will continue providing updates to ensure you have the best information to manage your business and plan for the future. 

Sincerely,

Dan Meuser
Member of Congress