PHOENIX – Arizona senior Senator Kyrsten Sinema and Republican Senator James Lankford (Okla.) are calling for the Small Business Administration and Treasury Department to ensure small businesses in Arizona and across the country that apply multiple times to the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) due to delays and lag times in applications are not penalized for their multiple attempts. Sinema and Lankford argue there must be a way to distinguish between bad actors hoping to get multiple loans from PPP and small businesses who mistakenly submit multiple applications.
“I hear directly from Arizona small businesses hitting roadblocks in the PPP process and needing to apply multiple times to get through to SBA. Good-faith attempts to access needed economic resources during the coronavirus pandemic should not be penalized by the federal government,” said Sinema.
Read the Senators’ letter HERE.
Sinema holds weekly calls with the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Arizona small businesses on which she answers questions about coronavirus relief and helps employers with PPP and EIDL applications. 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.
