The Small Business Administration should take several additional steps if Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) funding becomes available again, CUNA wrote to a House subcommittee Thursday. The House Small Business subcommittee on innovation and workforce development conducted a hearing on PPP loan forgiveness and other topics.

“SBA should improve their national and regional operation in order to provide more timely feedback to lenders and borrowers, including lender prioritization guidance, official guidance formalizing the use of PPP forms and guidance on the loan purchasing process,” the letter reads. “Furthermore, the SBA should issue guidance and forms to reflect that privately insured state-chartered credit unions are eligible to lend through the program.”

Credit unions facilitated more than 170,000 PPP loans averaging $49,000 each.

CUNA’s letter reiterated its support for the House and Senate bills that would provide simple forgiveness for PPP loans under $150,000 and called on Congress to enact “commonsense” liability protections for PPP lenders.

“This legislation would provide forgiveness for PPP loans of $150,000 or less if the borrower submits an attestation form to the lender. It also ensures that the lender will be held harmless from any enforcement action if the borrower’s attestation contained falsehoods,” the letter reads. “This threshold captures the vast majority of loans and is the amount at which the CARES Act makes the lowest cutoff in determining lender processing fees. The agencies should consider making forgiveness of these loans automatic or require a simple good faith certification that the funds were spent on forgivable expenses.”