Abigail Spanberger is leading an effort calling on the Trump administration to fix problems faced by community banks and credits unions related to the rollout of the Paycheck Protection Program.
In a letter sent to U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) Administrator Jovita Carranza, Spanberger, D-Va., and fellow Members of the Blue Dog Coalition urged the administration to rectify existing challenges faced by smaller financial institutions—particularly those in rural and underserved areas—ahead of the next round of PPP funding.
Specifically, they called on Secretary Mnuchin and Administrator Carranza to do the following: provide clear and concise instructions on how community banks and credit unions can access the SBA’s loan programs; make sure community banks, credit unions, and community development financial institutions (CDFIs) have equal opportunity to issue PPP loans; and direct the Federal Reserve to provide advances against PPP loans.
“If these smaller institutions are not able to help their communities, we fear the PPP will fail to achieve the goal of keeping small businesses afloat, and instead, leave small businesses and farmers in rural and underserved communities without access to necessary capital to survive,” said Spanberger and her colleagues. “This is everyone’s worst nightmare about government—it doesn’t work when you need it the most. The new round of PPP funding will present an opportunity for the administration to improve the program.”
Last week, Spanberger called on Members of Congress to support additional funding for PPP after the SBA closed applications due to a lapse of available federal funding.
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