7/19/2022 5:20 a.m.
U.S. Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley released a joint statement Monday urging the U.S. Small Business Administration to process COVID Economic Injury Disaster Loan applications that were received prior to the agency’s May 6th deadline.
In a bipartisan letter to SBA Administrator Isabella Casillas Guzman, the senators said, “While we recognize the agency has assisted an unprecedented number of small businesses throughout the pandemic, our offices continue to hear from thousands of prospective borrowers awaiting consideration.”
Wyden said his office is continuing to hear from loan applicants with disputed rejections who have received no communication from the administration in months.
In the statement Monday, the senators said that the program is too important to shut down prematurely.
The letter said, “While funds remain, we expect SBA to process all eligible applications and appeals that have been submitted by the request deadline.”
The COVID EIDL program has provided loans to nearly 4 million small businesses since the beginning of the pandemic, serving as an essential source of capital for small businesses, especially those that could not obtain credit to survive the pandemic from other lenders.
The text of the letter is here.
A web version of this release is here.