LaMalfa urges authorization of additional small business assistance

Congressman Doug LaMalfa issued the following statement, urging congressional leadership to appropriate more money for the Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster Loans.

LaMalfa said: “Immediate action is needed as this government sanctioned pause on the economy has crippled small family businesses and left millions of Americans without work. Economic Injury Disaster Loans and the Paycheck Protection Program are a lifeline to many businesses that are experiencing the side effects of COVID-19, but they were too-quickly depleted. Economic Injury Disaster Loans, in particular, serve as an effective tool to saving small businesses.

“Yet, the phase two disaster aid package only authorized $7 billion in EIDL loans, while over $300 billion have been applied for. The Paycheck Protection Program made loans to over one million small businesses, yet it ran out of funds days after being authorized. We had a chance over a week ago with Leader McConnell’s effort to do a simple, clean bill to extend these programs, which are in high demand, and for good reason. They maintain employer-employee relationships and businesses can keep their doors open with this assistance.

“By refusing to pass clean funding for these programs, speaker Pelosi and minority leader Schumer are holding small business owners hostage to fund programs that have hundreds of billions of dollars unspent already. Using this crisis as a way to push their liberal policy priorities is unconscionable. Rather than crippling our country even further, immediate action on only PPP and EIDL are needed now.”