Executive Calendar

Floor Speech

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Mr. JOHNSON. I really don't think there is a stronger advocate in support of small business in all of Congress. I think I have proved that with my work in tax reform, fighting for 95 percent of American businesses that are pass- through entities.

I think my colleagues on the floor here today realize that what the House passed has one very significant flaw in it--probably a technical drafting error but a significant flaw--which says that if you don't spend 60 percent of the PPP loan on payroll, you get no forgiveness, which was a dramatic difference from what it was when you had 75 percent.

I am in favor of all those changes. As Senator Shaheen pointed out, there are a lot of problems with PPP that need to be corrected. My only objection is, before we authorize this and put an authorization date all the way to December 31, we need to make sure those changes are made.

So my only objection is we should not extend this authorization without significant reforms that I hope my colleagues would all agree with; for example, the fact that many businesses--again, I am not denying that PPP provided very swift funding to businesses that truly needed it. It was a real lifeline. It worked from that standpoint.

But, in our case, we all knew that we had to do something massive, we had to do something quick, but we also knew it was going to be far from perfect. In our haste in crafting this, we made it possible for many businesses that didn't need it at all to have access to those funds, and we don't have an unlimited checking account.

When we give money to support businesses that don't need it, we are going to have less money to give to those that truly do need it.

Unfortunately, what we are down to here with this unanimous consent request--we have been working in good faith with the sponsors of the House bill, with the Republican leadership. I reached out to the Democratic leader, saying that we are very close; I think we will probably be able to pass the House bill, with assurances, by unanimous consent, just not at this moment.

So, again, I appreciate their thoughts. I am really not disagreeing with the fact that we have to do something. I want to do something as well. I just want to make sure that if we do put more money into this thing, it is not going to be flowing to businesses that don't need it, thereby denying those businesses that truly do need it in a more targeted fashion.

Will the Democratic leader yield?

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Mr. JOHNSON. What we are working on is not a change to this legislation. The way we are working this we will still be able to pass this piece of legislation unamended, unchanged, with a letter of intent from the chairs and the ranking members of the Small Business Committees of both the House and the Senate--together with a commitment from the majority leader--and we can pass this as-is.

We don't have to delay it. We are just this close. I am objecting at this time. Give us a little bit more time to work out that method, and then we will be able to pass this measure without amendment--no changes--pass this and then work in good faith together to make those changes I think we all agree need to be changed in the future.

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Mr. JOHNSON. Sure.

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Mr. JOHNSON. Yes. With cooperation from the chairmen and the ranking members of both committees, I think we will be able to get this thing done.

Again, our request is really very simple. I am not the only one. We don't want to see this program automatically reauthorized until the end of December. Now, there is some dispute as to whether the language actually does that. It sounds like the intent was not to do that; it was just to allow people to spend money through the end of December, which we have no problem with.

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Mr. JOHNSON. So, again, CRS actually interprets it as a full authorization, so we just need to show what that true intent is, put that letter into the Congressional Record so that we are certain that we are not reauthorizing this or authorizing it through December 31; that the authorization does end June 30 so that, if we do want to put more funds into a program like PPP, that new program will have the type of directed reforms that I think we really could gain agreement on.

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Mr. JOHNSON. Will the Senator yield?

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Mr. JOHNSON. The way we are working this out, there would be no change required, just a letter for the Congressional Record stating what I believe the intent was, just to allow people to spend to the end of December. We are just working out the details of that language, and then we will be able to allow this to pass by unanimous consent.

By the way, I have gotten other Members who are objecting to this to agree to this as well.

So just give us a little bit more time; agree to that language. Hopefully, the ranking member would agree with that letter for the Congressional Record. Pass this bill, unchanged. Then, in the future-- because this PPP will expire June 30, but the need does not.

If you read my article in the Wall Street Journal, I have a number of, I think, innovative ideas for what we can do to help restore capital for businesses that are going to need it to reopen our economy, and I would love to work very closely.

I obviously have experience in businesses and small businesses and would like to work with the chairman and ranking member of the Small Business Committee

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Mr. JOHNSON. I believe so. Again, there is a dispute as to what the language actually says. Again, I have no problem with the full $660 billion that has already been appropriated to be spent whenever. But I don't want to reauthorize the program past June 30 without the types of reforms that we can talk about. Then we will pass it through regular order.

What I am suggesting here is to just wait until we have this letter of intent for the Record. We are just asking the chairman or ranking member of the Small Business Committees of both houses to agree to and sign, and then we will pass this bill as-is, unchanged, to give those small businesses the certainty we want to provide them.

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Mr. JOHNSON. We will deal with those in the future.

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Mr. JOHNSON. I have no demands other than one--again, we are so close. We are first working it out on our side, and then we will consult you, and maybe we will pass it yet tonight or early tomorrow morning. That is my goal as well.

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Mr. JOHNSON. I am happy to come back or let you come back and ask for unanimous consent if we get this hammered out, and I will not object. But, at this point, I am going to object until we get this hammered out.

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