WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND), a Senate Banking Committee member, issued the following statement today on Senate Democrats voting against the Continuing Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) Act, a bill to provide additional assistance to small businesses struggling to recover from the impact of COVID-19:

“Last month, Senate Democrats blocked a COVID-19 relief package. Last week, they told us to not consider a Supreme Court nominee because we should work on a relief package. Last night, they tried to adjourn the Senate to prevent us from considering a relief package. Their purely political antics make about as much sense as voting against more Paycheck Protection Program funds for small businesses and workers in need, which is what they did today. These are the actions of people who care more about their own jobs than they do about Americans losing theirs.”

The Continuing PPP Act would: 

  • Provide $257.64 billion in funds to support PPP and PPP Second Draw Loans,
  • Expand forgivable expenses of PPP loans to include covered supplier costs, covered worker protection expenditures, and covered operations expenditures,
  • Simplify the forgiveness application process for smaller loans while increasing SBA’s ability to audit and review forgiven loans, and
  • Establish a specific PPP loan calculation for farmers and ranchers and provide Farm Credit System Institutions with greater certainty and equity in PPP lending participation.

Senator Cramer has been working to provide certainty for small businesses who received PPP loans and are going through the forgiveness process. Learn more here.