In the first round of Paycheck Protection Program funding, it's not surprising that there were flaws and unexpected problems that occurred. The law being hastily written and clarified over a period of time, and without significant oversight, resulted in a number of issues, among them technical delays, confusion over how (or when, or whether, if you are an independent contractor) to apply, not-so-small companies receiving funding that should have gone to actual small businesses, banks shuffling orders of application, and so on.
So it is disappointing to see that some of these problems appear to persist in the second round. Below a few links on what's happening, as well as possible hope on the horizon.
The Small Business Relief Program is Still Broken (Brookings Insitute)
Features some insights into how Congress can fix the ongoing issues, along with this really fascinating graphic and context "As the chart above shows, the loans that made it to what most consider small businesses accounted for only about a third of the actual money.":
The Finance 202: Trump administration's small business rescue has a rocky rollout. Again. (Washington Post)
This opinion piece pulls together headlines and stories from a number of sources attesting to different problems on the PPP's re-opening.
Mnuchin Warns Big Companies Taking Small Business Aid May Be Criminally Liable (Wall Street Journal)
Possible steps that might be taken to ensure that legitimately 'small' businesses receive funding rather than large institutions.
The Small Business Administration will cap PPP loan dollar amounts per bank (Business Insider)
This move, along with a couple of additional restrictions and changes, "mean that the biggest banks may not be able to dominate lending through the PPP, creating an opening for smaller banks," per the article.
Pro Tip: follow the hashtag #TaxTwitter for up to the minute expert questions and answers, developments, guideline releases about the PPP (along with some pretty funny - or frustrated - accountant stories).
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