The next stimulus package could include additional relief for small businesses as a bi-partisan proposal from months ago gains traction.
The RESTART Act was proposed in May to help small and medium sized businesses that were hit the hardest by the pandemic.
It includes a longer term program of low-rate loans of up to seven years for businesses with 5,000 employees or less with some of the loans being forgivable.
This loan program would cover a much wider range of small and medium sized businesses than the original PPP.
Unlike PPP loans, RESTART loans would not be forgivable for public companies. Forgiveness for eligible companies would be determined by the amount of revenue lost.
RESTART loans could also be used for a wider variety of operating expenses including personal protective gear like gloves and masks.
An agreement has yet to be reached, but one thing that both sides agree on is that more support for small businesses is necessary.
“There are also 47 Senators supporting the bill as it stands now, Sen. Bennett said; that group is a mix of Republicans and Democrats. And CEOS are on board, too, On Monday, more than 100 C-suite leaders, including former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadell called on Congress to provide a comprehensive relief package for small businesses in the next bill and specifically cited the RESTART Act as an example of the type of legislation they support.”