The chief executive officer of the Associated General Contractors of America, Stephen E. Sandherr, called on the Small Business Administration (SBA) to revise its eligibility guidelines for its new Paycheck Protection Program to make clear that any firm that employs 500 or fewer people to qualify, regardless of the average annual receipts size standard used for construction.
“Congress and the administration were clear when enacting the coronavirus relief measure that any firm employing 500 or fewer people should be eligible for the Paycheck Protection Program loans. The purpose of these loans is to keep businesses open so they can continue to operate and employ millions of Americans. Unfortunately, the Small Business Administration is needlessly delaying the loan applications of thousands of construction firms that clearly would meet the statutory threshold of 500 employers or less because the agency appears to have added a secondary qualification that is not part of the statute.