Bipartisanship isn’t common in Washington D.C. these days, but it happened with the passage of the Paycheck Protection Flexibility Act. This is a resounding victory for small businesses and their workers.

Key components of this new act responded to small businesses’ request to provide loan forgiveness flexibilities to the paycheck protection program under the CARES Act.

• Borrowers may choose to extend the use of the fund from 8 weeks to 24 weeks.
• The restoration of workforce levels and wages to the pre-pandemic levels is now extended from June 30 to December 31.
• The payroll expenditure requirement is dropped from 75% to 60% making is flexible for businesses with high rent or mortgage expense ratio.
• Borrowers have five years to repay the loan instead of two. The interest rate remains at 1%.

Washington Retail applauds the responsiveness of Congress to ensure small business viability and long-term paycheck stability.