Florida Senator Marco Rubio (R), a proponent of the Payment Protection Program (PPP) in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, is questioning the Small Business Association (SBA) over a backlog of program applications.
This week, Rubio sent a letter to Isabella Guzman, the Small Business Administration Administrator, questioning why there is a backlog of applications and raising “concerns that businesses in majority-minority zip codes had some of the lowest loan forgiveness rates” in the United States.
In reference to the “historic and bipartisan program that helped small businesses and nonprofits survive the COVID-19 pandemic,” Rubio pointed to “a significant number of borrowers [that] continue to experience delays in loan forgiveness.”
Rubio comments that recent data indicates there is “a backlog of more than 63,000 unresolved loan forgiveness applications.” Moreover, he laments that “there are approximately 1.4 million PPP loans of less than $150,000 still outstanding in which the borrower has yet to apply for loan forgiveness.”
Data also shows “that businesses in zip codes that are majority Black or Hispanic, including Miami-Dade, Broward, and Osceola counties in Florida, had some of the lowest 2020 PPP loan forgiveness in the country.”
He questions the Biden administration’s assistance with the PPP because “for an administration that has pledged to make racial equity a central plant of its agenda, these numbers suggest a remarkable lack of responsiveness to underserved communities.”
The program was devised to financially assist small businesses amidst the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and in a recent interview with Yahoo, Administrator Guzman said that the SBA's efforts with the Biden administration have helped said businesses.
When questioned about President Biden's State of the Union Address and his comments on small businesses, Administration Guzman lauded the president's efforts.
"The president's plan and his hope for the future is strong and resonates with small business from the perspective of they want to seek those opportunities into the future and see more competition and opportunities for them to plug in to the global economy," Guzman said.
Guzman has not yet responded to Senator Rubio's letter.
