Small Businesses have been left out and are running out of PPP loans…
This is a make-or-break moment for our country. As of June, more than 1.2 million business owners had closed up shop compared to February. The number of Black business owners has plummeted at a rate almost three times that for white owners. Over 300,000 people in the U.S. have lost their lives to the pandemic, and there is no end in sight..
Our senators have a choice. They can ignore coronavirus and give corporations a free pass to endanger workers and customers, profiteer from the pandemic, and eliminate small business competition. Or, senators can act to save lives and livelihoods, protect the small businesses our communities need to thrive, and make our country more equal. So far, Republican leaders in the Senate are choosing corporations and catastrophe. It is not too late for them to reverse that decision.
These are the experiences of small business owners who are struggling to save their businesses, offer quality jobs to people in their communities, and keep their employees, customers, and families healthy in the face of a deadly pandemic. Many of these business owners, operating establishments in Black or Latinx communities, were shut out of the temporary Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) that kept some small businesses afloat through the spring. Others received PPP funds but, with those funds ending, again face uncertainty and insurmountable debt. And all small business owners featured here know that their businesses can survive only as long as their customers have money to spend – money that to a large extent has evaporated with the end of pandemic unemployment benefits.
These small business owners call on their senators to pass legislation that meets the needs of small businesses, workers, and communities most affected by the pandemic. Among the measures this legislation must include are the following:
Equity grants to address the racially discriminatory effects of prior relief packages
Robust payroll support for the duration through expanded, more equitable Employee Retention Tax Credits
Renewed federal pandemic unemployment insurance benefits, as well as other forms of direct cash relief for workers that does not discriminate against immigrants