As it’s been widely reported, today the House added its approval for the next round of PPP loan funding, sending the bill to the President for signature.

Here’s a link to the bill, which increases funding for PPP loans under the SBA 7(a) program from $349 billion, to $659 billion.

The bill itself is fairly short, compared to the CARES Act, as this is essentially a way to turn the tap back on for more PPP loans, at least as far as the SBA aspect of the bill is concerned. I was looking at the bill to see if it had any language to allow those who were fortunate enough to get PPP money in round one, to apply for more dough at the end of the 8 weeks. So far nothing along those lines appears in the legislation – perhaps not surprisingly, given how many small businesses were still left out in the cold during round 1.

In other words, assuming you borrowed the maximum amount you were eligible for in round 1, you would be maxed out and not eligible for these additional funds based on the language of this bill. We’d need to see Congress and the SBA do more than just turn on the tap for more money – they’d need to change the PPP program itself to allow a refill.

Hope this helps. If you missed out on round 1, hopefully your application is already with your banker. If not, put on the coffee and fire up that bookkeeping software ASAP.

Finally, as one of those small business owners who is grateful for the lifeline, I want to say a word of thanks to the local banks I work with here in Maine. They have really been unsung heroes of this COVID crisis for the business community.