Hold The SBA Accountable For The EIDL Failures

Hold The SBA Accountable For The EIDL Failures

Started
April 6, 2020
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Signatures: 3,869Next Goal: 5,000
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Why this petition matters

Started by Trevor Wing

Introduction

Amongst chaos caused by the COVID-19 Outbreak, Congress passed the 'Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act'. This act was to attempt to save businesses in surviving this pandemic.

Small business is the backbone of the economy and the failure to act by the SBA has caused damage on many businesses as well as the economy which may take years to repair.

The Facts

On March 27th, 2020 the CARES Act was signed into law by President Trump.

A major part of the CARES Act is the EIDL that can provide a $10,000 grant to businesses regardless of the loan approval status. This grant can be used on fixed debts, payroll, accounts payable and bills that could not have been paid had the disaster not occurred.

- (1) IN GENERAL.—During the covered period, an entity included for eligibility in subsection (b), including small business concerns, private nonprofit organizations, and small agricultural cooperatives, that applies for a loan under section 7(b)(2) of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 636(b)(2)) in response to COVID–19 may request that the Administrator provide an advance that is, subject to paragraph (3), in the amount requested by such applicant to such applicant within 3 days after the Administrator receives an application from such applicant.

Previous to March 31st, the SBA had a long form for the EIDL loan application. On March 29th, they released a short form application that allowed businesses to apply for the advance in about 15 minutes, instead of the previous 2-3 hour application.

However, the SBA has failed to handle this appropriately.

- As of 4/6/2020, despite the law specifically stating that an advance will be provided within 3 days after the Administrator receives an application", not a single person has received the advance.

- The SBA has repeatedly altered their verbiage on their website and publicly stating that grant is 'based on the number of employees', despite what the law says. The law states up to $10,000 which is what is requested by the business. https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/USSBA/bulletins/284f240

- The SBA representatives answering the phone lines are unaware of what is happening. They are making up their own answers. The SBA has failed to inform their own employees on what to say. If you call 10 times, 10 employees say 10 different things. Some representatives on the phone will say that you'll receive based on the number of employees, others say the full 10k.

- The SBA has not communicated with the public effectively. Instead, they've decided to alter the law themselves by imposing restrictions which were not passed by congress.

- Even if the requirements were not able to be met, such as the 3 days, the SBA should have been in communication with the public. Instead they sit while businesses wither away amongst the Coronavirus chaos.

- In an email to David Hincapie from the SBA "The $10,000 maximum is for $1,000/employee. If you have no employees you will not get the advance." which means that Sole Proprietors or anybody without an employee with NOT get an advance.

- The CARES act does not make the emergency grant of the EIDL Advance contingent upon number of employees or upon a "successful" application. The SBA and @SBAJovita cannot supersede congressional law!


Personal Statement and Opinion

As the owner of Amopelle Co, a leathercraft business, it has been difficult to make ends meet due to the significant reduced demand. We were regularly producing custom projects for customers and slowly fulfilling our product line. Since the outbreak, our business has nearly went to $0. I'm not alone, I know many other makers where are now struggling to keep businesses going. We're non-essential, so we're not supposed to be at our business location.

We hope that the SBA can figure out how to solve their problem, or at least effectively communicate. The EIDL is supposed to assist businesses.

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Signatures: 3,869Next Goal: 5,000
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