March 25, 2021—Small businesses are pushing government officials to make some of its recent changes to the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) retroactive, Fox Business reported.
In late February, the Biden Administration implemented changes to PPP with the goal of helping the smallest of businesses. Since then, 164,000 loans requests have been submitted. Small businesses who requested loans prior to those changes, roughly 136,000 business owners, are now hoping those new, more favorable rules can retroactively apply and allow them to receive more money.
"There are so many borrowers who feel like, once again, this program has not served them," Ashley Harrington, director of federal advocacy for the Center for Responsible Lending, told the publication.
Questions about retroactivity are the latest challenge for the PPP, which was subject to multiple on-the-fly rule changes and glitches when it rolled out last year, creating problems for borrowers and lenders.
A Small Business Administration spokesperson told Fox that applicants can use the new formula if their loans aren’t yet finalized. An applicant, for example, can ask their lender to cancel a loan waiting for disbursement and then reapply.
