NAR Letter to House Small Business Committee Chairwoman Velazquez and Ranking Member Luetkemeyer Regarding COVID-19 Era Small Business Economy Hearing

On February 4 NAR sent a letter to Chairwoman Velázquez, Ranking Member Luetkemeyer, and the members of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Small Business. The letter thanks the legislators for holding the  hearing entitled “State of the Small Business Economy in the Era of COVID-19.” Congress acted quickly in 2020 to pass the CARES Act, which created critical relief programs for small businesses that were forced to close or reduce operations due to the pandemic, and since that time has acted to reauthorize and improve those programs. Small businesses have been bolstered by the Small Business Administration Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and Economic Injury Disaster Loans. It is important that Congress continues to support this program and that the SBA and the Treasury Department work to secure efficiency in the application processes. Additionally, Congress should consider further alterations to the Main Street Lending Facility – most immediately increasing the number of participating lenders – to make it more accessible to those hardest-hit sectors for which SBA programs are either insufficient or not available due to qualification standards.