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Today, the House Small Business Committee will hold a hearing to assess the state of the small business economy nearly a year into the global coronavirus pandemic. NAFCU’s Brad Thaler wrote to the committee ahead of the hearing to share how the credit union industry has stepped up to ensure small businesses and their communities are supported amid the pandemic. He also reiterated how providing credit unions with relief from the arbitrary member business lending (MBL) cap would allow the industry to provide more assistance.

The hearing is slated to begin at 10 a.m. Eastern today and can be viewed via livestream.

In the letter, Thaler, NAFCU’s vice president of legislative affairs, reiterated the association’s call for the committee to consider legislation excluding business loans made in response to coronavirus relief from the credit union MBL cap.

NAFCU was supportive of legislation (H.R. 6789) introduced in the House last year by Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., that would provide a one-year exemption from the MBL cap for loans made to small businesses as they recover after the national emergency. Similar legislation was also introduced in the Senate by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore.

Thaler also called on the committee to urge the Small Business Administration (SBA) to provide quicker loan forgiveness reviews for paycheck protection program (PPP) loans and more proactive transparent guidance for PPP lenders. Thaler detailed credit union involvement in the program and thanked the committee for its continued oversight.

“Despite the uncertainty surrounding the PPP as it launched and the associated risks, credit unions did all they could to ensure their existing and new small business members were taken care of,” wrote Thaler. “According to a NAFCU survey, 87 percent of NAFCU members reported providing PPP loans to new members and businesses that were turned away by other lenders and came to their credit union to apply for a PPP loan.”

Read the full letter. NAFCU will monitor the hearing today and will continue fighting for the credit union industry to receive the tools needed to support their communities through the pandemic and beyond.

Relatedly, the Senate Small Business committee Wednesday held a nomination hearing for Isabella Guzman to the Small Business Administration. Several committee members asked Guzman questions related to PPP and economic injury disaster loan (EIDL) programs and plans to ensure that minority and underserved businesses have access to resources.

During the hearing, Guzman committed to working with the committee to improve the administering of pandemic relief through the SBA’s programs and making needed improvements to SBA programs that provide non-pandemic related relief.