On Tuesday, President Joe Biden cited into law the “PPP Extension Act of 2021.” The bill extends the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) application deadline to May 31 and extends the PPP authorization through June 30.
“We’re pushing lenders to raise their game and provide more help to small — many small businesses. As you know, particularly Hispanic, as well as African American small businesses are just out of business because they got bypassed the first time around,” Biden remarked during the bill signing ceremony.
“Today, I’m proud to sign the extension, which I’m going to do in a second, of the Paycheck Protection Program. It is a bipartisan accomplishment. Nearly 90,000 business owners are still in line, and there’s money left. Without somebody signing this bill today, there are hundreds of thousands of people who could lose their jobs and small and family businesses that might close forever. And, as you know, small business is the backbone of our economy, representing almost 50 percent of all the employees in America,” Biden said.
The program offers potentially forgivable loans to smaller businesses. It was part of the original CARES Act pandemic legislation and underwent adjustments when larger companies took advantage of its provisions.
PPP loans are administered by financial institutions. In the early round, many minority-owned businesses were either frozen out of the processor received small loans due to the lack of banking relationships.
Investigations are underway on fraud cases involving PPP loans.
