Rep. Delgado Successfully Advocates for Inclusion of Small Business Priorities in COVID-19 Relief Package

December 22, 2020
Press Release

WASHINGTON, DC – Last night, U.S. Representative Antonio Delgado (NY-19) voted to pass a bipartisan legislative package made up of a $1.4 trillion FY21 budget and a $900 billion COVID-19 assistance bill. This legislation included several measures introduced by Rep. Delgado that will provide urgently needed relief for small businesses.

Specifically, the bill includes Rep. Delgado’s Small Business Debt Relief Extension Act, which would provide small businesses with additional loan relief for qualified SBA loans. This legislation builds on Rep. Delgado’s Small Business Repayment Relief Act, which was signed into law as part of the bipartisan CARES Act. The COVID-19 package also allows small businesses to apply for a second forgivable Paycheck Protection Program loan, as articulated in Rep. Delgado’s Prioritized Paycheck Protection Program or P4 Act. Additional information about small business relief in the legislative package passed last night can be found below.

“Over the last several months, I’ve heard from small business owners across the district about their experiences with federal COVID-19 initiatives like the Paycheck Protection Program, and the urgent need for additional relief. I am proud that the bill Congress passed last night included a number of priorities for small businesses including my Prioritized Paycheck Protection Program Act, which allows entrepreneurs to access a second forgivable loan, and my Small Business Debt Relief Extension Act, to alleviate loan payments for small businesses, with further relief for industries hardest-hit by the pandemic. The package also adds needed flexibility to existing relief programs so they work better for restaurants, live event venues, non-profits, and cultural institutions – all of which are crucial industries in upstate,” said Rep. Delgado, member of the House Committee on Small Business. “Small businesses are the backbone of our local economies in New York and it is imperative that we give these businesses the resources needed to survive this global health crisis. I urge the President to sign this bipartisan package into law as soon as possible.”
 

Below are Rep. Delgado’s small business priorities included in the bipartisan legislative package:

  • Extended Debt Relief for Small Businesses: The package builds on Rep. Delgado’s Small Business Repayment Relief Act, which was signed into law as part of the bipartisan CARES Act. Delgado’s original bill provided $17 billion for six months of automatic loan repayment for small businesses. This package includes $3.5 billion to extend this debt relief for all eligible loans for three months and provides an additional five months of relief to small businesses in industries hardest hit by the pandemic. In September, Rep. Delgado introduced the Small Business Debt Relief Extension Act to automatically extend repayment measures for qualified SBA loans.
  • Improvements to the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP): The package includes $284 billion in additional PPP funding and allows the hardest hit small businesses to apply for a second forgivable PPP loan, similar to Rep. Delgado’s Prioritized Paycheck Protection Program or P4 Act. Following Rep. Delgado’s urging, the package ensures small businesses can deduct PPP loans, and simplifies the forgiveness process for loans of $150,000 or less.
  • Expanded Economic Injury Disaster Loans: The bill also adds $20 billion to the Economic Injury Disaster Loan Advance Grants. This will ensure small businesses and nonprofits in low-income communities can access the $10,000 grants.
  • Assistance for Independent Restaurants & Live Entertainment Venues: The package includes added flexibilities within PPP to work better for independent restaurants and $15 billion for live venues, independent movie theaters and cultural institutions. Rep. Delgado is a cosponsor of the RESTAURANTS Act, which would provide additional funding to independent restaurants, and the Save Our Stages (SOS) Act, which creates a $10 billion grant program to provide grants to live venue operators, producers, promoters and talent representatives.
  • Permanent tax rates for small brewers and distillers: The package includes language to make the reduced excise tax rates for small brewers and distillers permanent, in line with legislation Rep. Delgado co-sponsors, the Craft Beverage Modernization and Tax Reform Act. Rep Delgado joined his colleagues earlier this month in sending a letter urging Leadership to include this legislation in a year-end package.

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