有一个古老的笑话，有史以来最大的谎言之一是：“我来自政府，我在这里为您提供帮助。”打孔线通常会大笑，但是当联邦政府如何破坏旨在帮助小型企业保持其企业在Covid-19-19-19的大流行时的企业运作时，这并不是很有趣的。
On March 27, President Donald Trump signed the Coronavirus Assistance and Relief (CARES) Act. Among the measure’s provisions was the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). It authorized the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) to provide loans to businesses so they could maintain their payrolls while weathering the economic storm. The loans were forgivable if the borrower maintained its workforce and used the funds for payroll, rent, utilities and other costs. Additionally, the borrower had to certify that current uncertainty “makes the loan request necessary to support ongoing operations.”
PPP贷款将于4月5日获得，在不到两周的时间内，该立法分配的全部金额（4500亿美元）已花费。不幸的是，SBA网站上发布的要求提供了比立法更窄的资格定义。该机构在其网站上宣布，申请人必须拥有少于500名员工和年收入，以达到该机构的各种职业分类的小型企业规模标准。
The legislation defined eligibility as meeting either the 500-employee-or-less threshold or the SBA size standard. For most construction firms, the agency defines small businesses as having about $40 million in annual receipts or less.
While most construction firms fall under the 500-employee threshold, SBA’s improper policy of additionally applying an annual receipts standard made many family-owned businesses conclude that they were not eligible. SBA and the U.S. Treasury Dept. later clarified that either condition met the requirement, but this was a preview of confusion to come.
Because the need for the loans exceeded the initial funding, the Trump administration and Congress moved to provide an additional $310 billion. At almost the same time, news media reported that large and, in some cases, publicly held firms were receiving PPP loans. The companies were in fact technically eligible, but the news was not well received by some on Capitol Hill and in the Treasury Dept.
作为回应，财政部在深夜在其网站上发布了新指南。这些指令声称，将自动审核贷款的接收者将自动审核，而较少金额的接收者将被随机审核。财政部给贷款接收者有机会在5月7日之前退还贷款，没有提出任何问题。
Compounding that implied threat was the addition of a new loan condition not found in the statute. To be eligible, applicants now needed to certify that they had considered using “other sources of liquidity.”
这些新指南在建设中引起了相当大的关注，其中18％的AGC监测公司表示他们正在考虑返回贷款，并威胁着不必要的新裁员。从那以后，财政部已将其贷款退货截止日期更改为5月18日。该部门还宣布，低于200万美元的贷款接收者将自动被视为合格。而且，如果后来被认为没有资格，则仅需要偿还价值200万美元或更多的贷款收款人。
不幸的是，该部门尚未澄清“其他流动性来源”的含义，或者收件人必须多久偿还这些贷款，除其他细节外。缺乏清晰度是令人担忧的来源，因为通常需要进行公共工作的承包商获得保证债券，以确保他们有完成项目的手段。为了保持债券能力，承包商需要证明可管理的现金流以及储备。未能证明赚钱或付费材料的能力会使他们的业务面临违约的风险。
Congress and the administration provided a needed life preserver to employers whose companies were threatened by the economic storm. But unfortunately for many construction firms, federal agencies keep pulling that lifeline away.
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