Sinema called on the Small Business Administration to immediately process Arizona small businesses’ Economic Injury Disaster Loan applications
WASHINGTON – Arizona senior Senator Kyrsten Sinema called on the Small Business Administration to fill the backlog and immediately process Arizona small businesses’ Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) applications so they can receive economic relief.
“I hear directly from Arizona small business owners who have been waiting on economic relief for months. The federal government must immediately fix the backlog and process applications so Arizona small businesses can access needed resources now,” said Sinema.
The EIDL program provides crucial low-interest loans and emergency grants to Arizona small businesses and nonprofits. The EIDL is particularly critical in Arizona, where 99 percent of businesses are small businesses employing almost 44 percent of Arizona’s workforce. According to the Small Business Administration, the normal wait time for EIDL applications to process is three weeks. However, Sinema noted in her letter that there are Arizona small businesses who applied for loans in March and are still awaiting their applications to process and there are over 300 Arizona businesses who have waited for over three weeks.
In her letter, Sinema specifically called for:
- Immediate action to address the backlog of applications for the EIDL program, giving priority to those applications that have waited the longest.
- Information on Sinema’s list of over 300 outstanding EIDL applications that have been waiting for approval for more than three weeks.
- Information regarding the number of received applications that originated in the state of Arizona and, of those, the number of applications pending review, the number of applications approved, the number of applications denied, and a breakdown of wait times endured by Arizonans.
In the recent Congressionally-approved coronavirus package, Sinema helped secure $310 billion for the Paycheck Protection Program, $60 billion for smaller, disadvantaged businesses, $60 billion for Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL) and grants, $75 billion for health care providers, and $25 billion for testing, including $11 billion directly to states. Sinema also helped secure a number of priorities in the sweeping coronavirus-response CARES Act law, including a $150 billion relief fund for state, local, and Tribal governments, $55 billion more in investments in hospitals and health care workers, and an increase in unemployment benefits. Sinema also recently wrote an op-ed outlining Arizona needs she is working to include in the next coronavirus-response legislation.
Sinema has also added a resources page to her website, www.sinema.senate.gov/corona, for Arizonans looking for the latest information on coronavirus.
Click HERE for Sinema’s letter.
Click HERE for Spanish version of release.