Congressman Fred Upton is calling for the federal Paycheck Protection Program to extended as long as it’s needed. He and 73 other members of the U.S. House have signed a letter to the Congressional leadership saying Congress must “remove arbitrary funding barriers by having a plan to fully fund the PPP, at an appropriate level.” Upton tells WSJM News the first two rounds of PPP funding have shown there’s a will in Washington to keep the program going.
“This program used $350 billion in literally ten days and the president was right to call for $250 billion more, and we passed that on an almost unanimous vote in the House,” Upton said. “Only five people voted no.”
Upton’s office says the PPP program has given out 1.6 million loans for small businesses to pay their employees as workers are kept home due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He says more will be needed.
“We’ve heard from so many different small businesses that missed on the first round. There was a glitch in their application, it was a little delayed and there wasn’t a lot of time to get it done. But this is life or death for these small businesses.”
He and his colleagues write the program should be continued for as long as it’s needed. Upton and Congressman and Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey led the effort to produce the letter. You can read it right here.
