- Hi, everyone.
I'm attorney Aiden Durham
with 180 Law Co. in Denver, Colorado,
and you're watching All Up In Yo' Business.
(cheerful guitar instrumental)
On this episode of All Up In Yo' Business,
I'm gonna give you guys a quick little update
on what's going on with the EIDL,
the Economic Injury and Disaster Loan program
through the SBA.
But first, don't forget to like, subscribe, and share,
and check the description for links
to additional information and resources,
and all that fun stuff, too.
So last week, a couple of senators introduced a new bill
called the Ensuring Increased Disaster Loans
for Small Businesses Act,
the EIDL for Small Businesses Act.
This bill would provide an additional $180 billion
for the EIDL loan and advanced grant program.
It would also prevent the SBA
from arbitrarily capping
EIDL loans below two million
and require the SBA to give $10,000 grants or advances
to all businesses, or all eligible businesses,
regardless of their size.
So why is this important?
I mean, obviously it's important
because a lot of small businesses and a lot of people
are still really struggling right now
as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic
and everything coming out from that,
and just kind of our current situation
in our economy right now,
a lot of people are still struggling.
So making more money available to businesses that need it
is obviously important.
But, more importantly,
this bill is really just kind of intended
to uphold the original intent of the CARES Act
and what the CARES Act,
the intent of the CARES Act to begin with.
So the CARES Act, which was enacted a while ago,
it provided part of what it provided for
was for these Economic Injury and Disaster Loans,
which would, in the CARES Act,
would be up to $2 million a loan
to eligible small businesses,
as well as a $10,000 grant or advance
that wouldn't have to be repaid.
Well, not too long after the CARES Act became law,
the SBA started placing these kind of arbitrary caps
on the EIDL loans and the advance grants.
The EIDL loans had been capped at $150,000 per business,
even though the CARES Act stated
that the loan would be up to $2 million.
They also kept the EIDL grant loans,
or, I'm sorry, the EIDL advance grants
at $1,000 per employee up to $10,000,
even though the CARES Act says
$10,000 for each eligible business.
And then wonderfully, a few weeks ago,
all of the funds that had been allocated to the program,
specifically to the grant program,
had been used up and there was no money left
to give any additional advances or grants
to these small businesses.
And so, that left a lot of small businesses kind of hanging.
If they hadn't already applied
or if they didn't get their applications in on time
or something like that,
the money that they may have otherwise been entitled to
is just, kind of, gone.
And so, that's a big part
of what this new bill is meant to fix.
So specifically, this new bill,
it would provide an additional $100 billion dollars
for the EIDL loans,
as well as an additional $80 billion
for the EIDL advance grants.
So, you know, making more money available
for the loans themselves, as well as the grants.
This bill would also prohibit the SBA
from placing these arbitrary caps on that $2 million maximum
and prohibit the SBA from limiting that $10,000 advance.
So, again, it's really just upholding
the spirit of the CARES Act
and what it was intended to do in the first place.
But so, again, it would prevent the SBA
from having that random $150,000 cap
or that $1,000 per employee cap
and stick with the cap of $2 million loan
and $10,000 advance grant.
The bill would also require that the advance grant
be dispersed within three days
from that applicant's request,
so basically from the date of the application,
and that the advance grant not be contingent
upon getting the loan.
So, in other words, that the grant itself
has to be dispersed within three days,
and whether or not you get the grant
can't depend on if you're eligible for the loan itself,
which, again, was part of the initial intent
of the CARES Act.
It does say that the disbursements would be made
within three days from the date of the request.
So, you know, again,
it's kind of just in the spirit
of doing what the initial intent of the CARES Act was.
And then finally, this bill would place
some additional reporting requirements on the SBA, too.
So currently, this is just proposed legislation.
This isn't actually law yet.
Whether it will be is still TBD.
We're gonna have to kind of wait and see,
just like everything else currently, you know.
I don't know if you guys have caught on yet,
but people behind the scenes and the government and stuff,
they're kinda just flailing and making things up
as they go along, kind of like everybody else is.
So, you know, a lot of this is going to be a wait and see,
see how things turn out.
You know, if they do pass this, if this does become law,
then it's still kinda gonna be a waiting game
in how they're actually going to administer it
and how it's actually going to function and work.
And so, like a lot of the questions I've been getting,
or people I've been talking to about this,
one of the questions is will I have to reapply
if, let's say, I applied for the loan initially
and got that $1,000 grant,
if now I'm entitled to $10,000, will I have to reapply?
Again, we don't know. We're gonna have to wait.
If this does pass, then we're gonna have to wait and see
what comes out as far as process
and how we actually go about it.
My guess would be yes, that you'll probably have to reapply,
or there will be some resubmission process.
But, again, I'm just guessing.
I don't know for sure.
But that would be my best guess.
So, again, we don't know what's gonna turn up from this,
we don't know how this is all gonna turn out,
but it is a hopefully good sign
that more is going to be done to help small business owners
and help small businesses
because I know a whole lot of people out there
are struggling and are losing their entire life savings
and their businesses that they put
all of their money and life into.
And as a lawyer who's working with
a lot of these small businesses,
a lot of my clients who I've worked with
for five, six, seven years,
seeing them start to struggle,
or seeing some of them have had to
actually close their doors,
it's tough for me as their lawyer
to see all of this happening.
And so, I think this is at least a positive step
in the right direction of hopefully making
more available and accessible to small businesses.
So, that's all for this episode.
Just wanted to give you all a quick update
on what's going on with this
because I know a lot of people
are still concerned and interested
in what's going to happen with the EIDL program
and this money that is supposed to be available
through the SBA.
Go ahead and drop a comment below,
let me know what you think.
And, again, don't forget to check the description
for additional information and resources,
and I'm gonna link to the website
where you can read the actual, you know,
more texts of this proposed bill.
It's still, you know, very early on,
so you can't see the actual legislation or anything, but,
if you want to read more about it
or look into more of the details,
I'll link to that down in the description below, too.
Thank you all so much for watching.
I'm Aiden Durham, and I'll see you next time.
(tranquil music)