COVID-19 Relief for Small Businesses Act of 2020 2020-03-19 Introduced in House COVID-19 Relief for Small Businesses Act of 2020

This bill establishes measures to support small businesses impacted by COVID-19 (i.e., coronavirus disease 2019).

Specifically, the SBA must

  • temporarily make or guarantee loans for specified uses to small businesses in a state or territory with a case of COVID-19, up to 50% of which may be forgiven;
  • pay the principal, interest, and associated fees owed on certain small business loans for a six-month period;
  • provide grants to small businesses suffering substantial economic injury because of COVID-19;
  • provide grants to small business development centers, women's business centers, and chapters of the Service Corps of Retired Executives for specified purposes;
  • reimburse grant recipients under the State Trade Expansion Program for an amount of losses related to COVID-19;
  • provide SBA resources and services in the 10 most commonly spoken languages, other than English, in the United States, including Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, and Korean.

In addition, the SBA may make economic injury disaster loans to small businesses in response to COVID-19 and waive certain requirements on such loans.

The bill also

  • temporarily increases guarantee amounts and loan sizes for certain SBA loans, temporarily waives or reduces certain fees on SBA loans, and permanently waives the guarantee fee on SBA loans for veterans;
  • revises the Microloan Program;
  • provides additional leverage for small businesses affected by COVID-19;
  • reestablishes the New Markets Venture Capital Program; and
  • requires a federal agency to provide additional performance time to small business contractors and to pay such contractors regardless of delay due to COVID-19.
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