Oklahoma Bankers Association We make bankers better!
In last week’s OBA Update, we asked our bankers to contact Sen. Inhofe and Sen. Lankford to sign-on as co-sponsors to S. 4117.
This bill would all small business that received PPP loans less than $150,000 to have blanket forgiveness. Loans of this size account for 86% of all PPP loans, but the total dollar amount of these loans make up less than 27% off all PPP loans that have been funded.
We still encourage you to contact your senators to let them know this legislation is needed to ease the forgiveness burden on our small businesses.
Below is a sample letter that you can either email or mail to your senators and encourage them to support S. 4117. We would also like you to send this sample letter to all of your customers who received PPP loans that were less than $150,000. Let get them involved in the process and put as much pressure on our senators as we can.
I support S. 4117, and I’m asking you to co-sponsor this bill. The bill deals with the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program and will help small businesses across Oklahoma by expediting the forgiveness process for most PPP borrowers.
The past several months have been unlike anything we have ever experienced, and it will be months before we fully recover from the health and economic shock caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Small businesses across our state are doing everything they can to withstand the economic impact of this unprecedented pandemic, and it’s taken a toll on small business owners and their employees. When Congress enacted the PPP, the goal was to help our country’s small business owners meet the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, keep their businesses open, pay their employees and serve their communities. More than 4.8 million loans have been disbursed to date, and more than 62,000 of those loans are in Oklahoma.
Eighty-six percent of PPP borrowers received loans of $150,000 and less. But these loans account for fewer than 27% of total PPP loan dollars. Right now we’re stuck at the beginning of the forgiveness phase. I’m asking you to help ensure that the forgiveness process is easy, simple and less technical for these small business owners who are still trying to figure out how to survive the economic impact of the coronavirus shutdown while we struggle to reopen our economy.
I’m asking for your support because our state’s small businesses need your help. Instead of asking the smallest and most vulnerable of PPP borrowers to process burdensome paperwork, S. 4117 will simplify the forgiveness process as it was originally envisioned by Congress. Borrowers will be required to complete a simple, one-page form attesting that they used the funds according to the PPP loan requirements.
Contact information is listed below for both Sen. Inhofe, Sen. Lankford and the individuals in their offices tasked with handling banking issues. Please don’t hesitate to email their banking LAs as the information will get to the senators.
Sen. Jim Inhofe
205 Russell Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
(202) 224-4721
Jake Hinch (Banking LA)
jake_hinch@inhofe.senate.gov
Sen. James Lankford
316 Hart Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
(202) 224-5754
Jesse Mahan (Banking LA)
jesse_mahan@lankford.senate.gov