Washington Watch

This past week, the President signed the $1.5 trillion government funding bill with Ukraine aid. The funding bill, which received bipartisan approval, passed the Senate in a 68-31 vote and the House 361-69. This will provide funding through

The SBA Administrator recently announced additional deferment of principal and interest payments for existing COVID Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program Borrowers for 30 months deferment from inception on all approved COVID EIDL loans. The Administrator believes the extended deferment period will provide additional flexibility to small business owners impacted by the pandemic, especially those in hard-hit sectors managing disruption with recent variants and current supply chain and inflation challenges amid a growing economic recovery.

Last week, the White House announced&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nase.org/sf-docs/default-source/advocacy-documents/build-back-better-fact-sheet.pdf?sfvrsn=95651df0_2">President Biden&rsquo;s Build Back Better Framework</a>&nbsp;that will guide the drafting of legislative language in the Build Back Better Act. The President hopes, &ldquo;this framework will set the United States on course to meet its climate goals, create millions of good-paying jobs, enable more Americans to join and remain in the labor force, and grow our economy from the bottom up and the middle out.&rdquo;

On Saturday, March 6, 2021, NASE CEO & President Keith Hall joined the Small Business Administration for a webinar on the recently announced (see above) changes to the PPP program specific to self-employed individuals. You can view the webinar and the informative Q&A here. Senate Pass America Rescue Plan Setting Up President Biden’s First Legislative Victory

On March 3, 2021, the Small Business Administration announced changes to the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) for self-employed individuals. The changes include: - Self-employed business owners with no employees will be eligible for a loan equal to their 2019 or 2020 gross income, divided by 12, multiplied by 2.5.

This week the House will take up the Covid relief; the $1.9T includes the following small business provisions: Amendments to the Paycheck Protection Program: ​Eligibility of Certain Organizations