Biden visits hardware store to promote PPP loans

President Joe Biden visited a small business hardware store in Washington, DC, that has benefited from a pandemic-era Paycheck Protection Program loan. Biden announced changes last month to the program, allowing it to target more federal assistance to the nation's smallest businesses and ventures owned by women and people of color.

The administration established a two-week window in which only businesses with fewer than 20 employees — the overwhelming majority of small businesses — could apply for the forgivable loans. First rolled out in the earliest days of the coronavirus pandemic and renewed in December, the program was meant to help keep Americans employed during the economic downturn.

It allows small and mid-size businesses suffering loss of revenue to access federal loans, which are forgivable if 60% of the loan is spent on payroll and the balance on other qualified expenses. The Biden effort is aimed at correcting disparities in how the program was administered by the Trump administration.

(Image Credit: AP)