Today, Senator Reverend Warnock applauded the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) decision to heed his call and extend payments deferment for COVID Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL)
The announcement came in response to the Senator’s March 9th letter urging SBA Administrator Guzman to give Georgia small businesses more time to repay these loans, allowing businesses to use cash on hand to contribute more fully to the economic recovery
This SBA policy change will help provide immediate relief to the close to 190,000 Georgia small businesses that currently have a EIDLs
Senator Reverend Warnock is a fierce advocate for Georgia’s small businesses, introducing legislation to protect them from security breaches, securing federal investments to provide relief to small businesses as they navigate COVID-19, and championing the expand Child Tax Credit – which provided families with much needed relief to spend at small businesses.
Senator Reverend Warnock: “We owe small businesses a debt of gratitude for their sacrifice, flexibility and commitment to our communities. I’m glad my letter to SBA Administrator Guzman led to tangible relief to over 190,000 Georgia small businesses in every corner of our state.”
Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Reverend Raphael Warnock (D-GA) secured a major victory for 190,000 Georgia small businesses that hold a COVID Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) by successfully pressuring the Small Business Administration (SBA) to extend the deferment period for EIDL loan holders to begin making payments. The SBA announcement came after the Senator led 15 of his colleagues in urging SBA Administrator Isabel Guzman to provide this much needed relief to small businesses in Georgia and around the nation. The SBA will give borrowers 30 months to start repaying their EIDL, a six-month extension from the previous 24 months deferment period.
“In the early days of the pandemic, hundreds of thousands of Georgia businesses shut down in order to keep Georgia’s communities safe,” said Senator Reverend Warnock. “They relied on Economic Injury Disaster Loans to ensure they wouldn’t need to close their doors for good. Small businesses kept people on the payroll throughout the pandemic and helped life quickly begin to return to normal. We owe small businesses a debt of gratitude for their sacrifice, flexibility and commitment to our communities. I’m glad my letter to SBA Administrator Guzman led to tangible relief for over 190,000 Georgia small businesses in every corner of our state. Georgia small businesses can now use their cash on hand to continue hiring workers and contributing to our economic recovery. I’ll continue to keep in close contact with Georgia small business owners to ensure the SBA and Congress are working for them.”
Nearly 190,000 Georgian small businesses have benefitted from EIDL loans. Extending the deferment acknowledges that these small businesses are operating in a perilous economic environment, due not only to the continuing health threat, but to large scale changes that had greatly altered our economy during the pandemic. With their slim profit margins, small businesses find it challenging to support debt even in the best of times.
SBA EIDLs are low-interest loans available to eligible small businesses. EIDLs provide eligible small businesses a loan up to $2 million, with a repayment term of up to 30 years. The loans can be used to pay for expenses that could have been met had the disaster not occurred, including payroll and other operating expenses. COVID-19-related EIDLs have an interest rate of 3.75% for businesses and 2.75% for nonprofits and initially had an automatic one-year deferment on repayment, but on March 16, 2021, the SBA announced that they would extend the deferment period for a second year.
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