WASHINGTON (BRAIN) – The Small Business Administration will offer businesses and nonprofits with fewer than 20 employees an exclusive 14-day Paycheck Protection Program loan application period.

Also committed to racial and gender equity, the administration attempts to reach low and moderate income, rural, urban and other underserved areas by:

  • Allow sole proprietors, independent contractors and self-employed workers to receive more financial support by revising the P3 funding formula for these categories of applicants.
  • Eliminate exclusive access to PPP restrictions for small business owners who have previously been convicted of felony without fraud, in accordance with a bipartisan congressional proposal.
  • Eliminate P3 access restrictions for small business owners who have struggled to make federal student loan payments by eliminating delinquencies and defaults on federal student loans as a disqualification to participate in P3
  • Ensure access to non-citizen small business owners who are legal residents of the United States by specifying that they can use the individual tax identification number to apply for the PPP.

The exclusivity period begins Wednesday at 9 a.m. The other four changes will be implemented during the first week of March.

The latest funding round for the COVID-19 pandemic which began last month authorized up to $ 284 billion for job retention and some other spending until March 31 and allowing some existing borrowers to apply for a second loan.

Some of the highlights of the program over the last round include:

  • For companies with less than 10 employees, the share of financing is up by almost 60%.
  • For businesses in rural communities, the share of financing has increased by nearly 30%.
  • The share of funding distributed by community development finance institutions and minority depositories has increased by over 40%.

PeopleForBikes has also been offering industry loan resources to retailers since the onset of the pandemic in the spring.