Association Continues to Push for Changes to Form Itself
On Dec. 8, 黑料不打烊 filed suit against the Small Business Administration (SBA), seeking to compel the agency to restrict its use of the 鈥淟oan Necessity Questionnaire鈥 now going out to all companies seeking forgiveness of Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans over $2 million 鈥 and ultimately, to compel SBA to revise the form itself. The details lie in the thirty-page complaint that 黑料不打烊 filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
黑料不打烊 recognizes that SBA has every right and even an obligation to ensure that companies were eligible for the PPP loans they are now asking SBA to forgive. But 黑料不打烊 objects to SBA鈥檚 use of this particular form 鈥 and to any other effort the change standards for loan eligibility. After carefully reviewing the questionnaire, 黑料不打烊 concluded that the answers to its perplexing questions cannot begin to paint an accurate picture of the economic uncertainty that companies faced at the time they applied for their loans.
黑料不打烊 is now pleased to report that its legal action quickly yielded results. On Dec. 9, SBA and the Treasury Department issued new guidance on the questionnaire. The new guidance confirms that 鈥渢he statutorily required certification鈥 of economic uncertainty and necessity did not have to meet any objective standard. Companies merely had to make that certification 鈥渋n good faith at the time of [the] loan application.鈥 While the new guidance does not expressly disavow any intention change the rules in the middle of the game, it similarly states that SBA will examine each company鈥檚 鈥渋ndividual circumstances鈥 as they existed 鈥渁t the time of the loan application, even if subsequent developments resulted the loan no longer being necessary.鈥
And on Dec. 10, after weeks if not months of insisting that it had to keep the questionnaire secret, SBA officially released form, posting a copy on the agency鈥檚 .
At this point, 黑料不打烊 continues to press the agency to reopen and extend the period for public comment on the questionnaire. 黑料不打烊 does not want to disrupt or delay the agency鈥檚 review of any applications that it is otherwise inclined to grant, but ultimately, 黑料不打烊 does hope to persuade the agency to make significant changes to the form 鈥 and 黑料不打烊 intends to pursue its lawsuit in the absence of any assurance that the agency will do just that.