I’d like you all to talk to your congresspeople.

The Paycheck Protection Program is a loan program that was authorized by the CARES Act in the end of March and started a couple weeks ago. The goal has been to keep people employed by having their employers pay them and not lay them off. In retrospect, this has been a good idea because a lot of people have yet to receive their enhanced unemployment benefits promised in the CARES Act, so the employers who have decided to keep employees on payroll during this time have done a great service to their employees. We are paying our employees to stay home and stay safe, so that they don’t have the additional stress of losing their income and filing for unemployment.

Unfortunately, there was not enough money authorized in the program. It was devised very quickly, without enough thought into how much money it should require. Rather than taking time to deliberate during an emergency, the Congress decided to act. Correctly, in my opinion.

The lack of funding means that businesses will run out of money unless the loans are funded. It’s as plain and simple as that. Businesses depend on cash flow. When there’s no cash, it doesn’t matter what the future revenues are going to look like, the business will be bankrupt before it can get to the future.

New funding has already been approved by the Senate. Again, the bill is probably not perfect. But it is already very late. Please call or write an e-mail to your Representative and ask him or her to approve this bill so that the small businesses you depend on can continue to serve you.

Thank you very much for your support!