Wisconsin Congressman Asks for Additional Guidance for Farmers to Access Paycheck Protection Program
Thursday, April 30th, 2020 -- 9:37 AM
(Wisconsin Ag Connection) -Wisconsin Congressman Ron Kind joined four other House members in asking the Small Business Administration for additional guidance that will allow farmers access to the Paycheck Protection Program.In a letter to SBA Administrator Jovita Carranza and Department of Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, the lawmakers claim that some farms do not report a final profit, which is a required field on the PPP form, despite making agriculture their primary source of income. Kind says some farmers are unable to prove eligibility to access PPP under current program requirements. However, the Farm Service Agency and others at USDA have been able to use alternative ways to adequately account for loan underwriting risk and interpret business operations in order to administer various farm loans to farmers every year.
The letter asks the agency leaders to work with USDA to use simple commonsense metrics that already exist in USDA loan programs to create an alternative that would allow for farmers to prove that their farms should be eligible for the PPP.
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