SBA Targets PPP Loans of $2M or More (AGC)

AGC of America

November 5, 2020

Late last week, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) announced that Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) lenders would send a questionnaire to PPP borrowers who received a principal loan amount of $2 million or more. No questionnaire had been released until Friday night, when Politico released what appears to be the questionnaire, found here. As of this moment, the SBA has neither verified the Politico released questionnaire nor released an official one.

• UNREASONABLE FORGIVENESS DENIAL SOUGHT: There is little doubt that the purpose of the questionnaire is to deny loan forgiveness to borrowers who have not been negatively impacted by COVID, even though no borrower could have known the impact of COVID on them when applying for the loan. Remember, under the CARES Act that established PPP, there is absolutely no mention of a requirement that borrowers be actually impacted by COVID, only that the “economic uncertainty” made the loan necessary.  Moreover, the CARES Act did not clearly define “economic uncertainty” or “need,” leaving it up to applicants to make good-faith certifications that they qualified for PPP loans based upon their own, subjective determination of what those terms meant. 
• AGC ON IT: The association remains committed to ensuring AGC member PPP borrowers can receive loan forgiveness as Congress intended under the CARES Act, not SBA’s hindsight rulemaking and guidance. As such, we will undertake the necessary avenues to ensure just that and continue to monitor this developing situation while conferring with key allies on Capitol Hill and the Administration.