U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen

WASHINGTON – U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., a senior member of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, hosted a conference call with New Hampshire small business owners and nonprofit leaders who have been unable to receive much-needed assistance through the Paycheck Protection Program.

Shaheen was a lead negotiator of the bipartisan Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, which created the PPP and Economic Injury Disaster Loan grant program. She has held frequent conversations with New Hampshire small businesses and non-profits as the programs have been negotiated and implemented to gather feedback on how the programs can be improved and best deliver assistance.

“Much more needs to be done in Congress to address the Trump administration’s implementation flaws, adapt these programs to this rapidly changing crisis, and provide additional assistance so that small businesses can continue to access relief,” Shaheen said. “I helped negotiate the small business provisions in the CARES Act, and the intent of this law is to deliver urgently needed help to mom-and-pop shops – not large publicly traded corporations that have connections with big banks. I will be sharing the feedback from this conversation, as well as the reports I received yesterday from small businesses who have received funding, with administration officials and I’ll continue to press for more transparency and stronger oversight of small business relief programs as Congress negotiates upcoming COVID-19 relief legislation.”

In New Hampshire, nearly 20,000 small businesses and nonprofits have received more than $2.5 billion in low-interest, forgivable loans under the PPP.

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