In May, U.S. Sen. Todd Young co-authored the RESTART Act (S. 3814) to provide support to small and mid-sized businesses most affected by the COVID-19 crisis.
Young has been pushing for this bill and recently indicated that a companion measure will be introduced in the House soon.
The RESTART Act would give business owners who took out Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans the flexibility they need to utilize the PPP effectively. The RESTART Act would also create a loan program to provide funding to jump-start the hardest-hit businesses for the remainder of 2020 and provide loan forgiveness as a backstop against ongoing economic challenges. Specifically, the bill provides a PPP loan recipient with 16 weeks to use such funds if the recipient has less than 500 full-time employees and suffered a decline in revenues of at least 25%.
The bill also establishes a loan program whereby the Small Business Administration would guarantee 100% of program loan amounts made to certain small businesses that have 5,000 full-time employees or less. The terms for such loans would include a maximum duration of not more than seven years; an amount that is not greater than 45% of 2019 gross receipts, up to $12 million; and no payment on principal for the first two years of the loan. A lender that is otherwise approved to make PPP loans may make and approve loans established by the bill, and a recipient may use loan funds for specified allowable expenses including payroll costs, rent, utilities and personal protective equipment. Such loans may be forgiven up to the amount of total losses incurred by the recipient in the taxable year 2020.
Watch Sen. Young talk in detail this month about the RESTART Act.
Resource: Greg Ellis at (317) 264-6881 or email: gellis@indianachamber.com
