Times Herald-Record - Helping Small Businesses Benefits Us All

Op-Ed

By Antonio Delgado

Our small businesses are essential to our way of life here in upstate. Run by our friends and family, they create jobs all across our communities and represent the backbone of our local economy. With 27,000 small businesses, including self-employed owners, throughout my congressional district, I take a lot of pride in my role as a member of the House Small Business Committee.

I am deeply grateful for a position that allows me to advocate for the hard-working men and women in upstate who are experiencing unprecedented losses or being forced to close during this global health emergency.

I routinely speak with a bipartisan group of local business leaders who serve on my Small Business Advisory Committee to hear first-hand about how they're handling changes in the economic landscape and how the federal government can assist them. I am both an advocate for the needs of our small businesses here at home and committed to pursuing laws that will help meet those needs.

Our small businesses are facing an untenable economic reality in which we must temporarily abandon non-essential in-person interactions and adhere to social distancing guidance. This is why I introduced the Small Business Repayment Relief Act, which was signed into law as part of the larger bipartisan CARES Act.

My legislation provides $17 billion in relief to automatically cover six months of loan payments (including principal, interest and fees) on all current and new qualified Small Business Administration (SBA) loans. It targets three of the biggest SBA loan programs and provides immediate support to small businesses across our region.

The CARES Act also provides $10 billion to expand the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) Program and create new loan advances. The funds, which are available to small-and mid-size businesses, including startups, cooperatives, and ESOPs, will be used to provide up to $10,000 in loan advances, which allow businesses to receive an immediate, emergency advance on that loan from the SBA within three business days of applying. This advance does not need to be paid back, regardless of whether the small business owner is approved for an Economic Injury Disaster Loan, which itself can provide loans for up to $2 million.

A third source of funding for small business is the Paycheck Protection Program, which provides SBA loans of up to 2.5 times an employer's monthly payroll to cover a wide range of expenses during the immediate crisis.

Small and mid-size businesses of up to 500 employees, nonprofits, independent contractors and self-employed workers are eligible for no-fee loans of up to $10 million, with repayment deferred for at least six months. If the business retains the same number of employees as when they received the loan, up to 100 percent of the loan may be forgiven. These measures are just the beginning of the work that needs to be done to support our small business community throughout this difficult time. I am already working with my colleagues on additional steps that must be taken, including leading my colleagues in urging SBA to make small farms eligible for the EIDL program.

As businesses seek to navigate these new provisions of the CARES Act, I urge them to visit my website: Delgado.House.Gov, and utilize my COVID-19 resource guide. Stay safe and stay healthy--we will get through this together.

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