在美国相关总承包商起诉美国小型企业管理局和管理和预算办公室的一天之后的一天，促使调查表的语言变更用于评估申请人是否有资格获得薪水保护计划贷款，SBA发布了与文档。

该机构称,12月9日,在审查排版any's good-faith certification that "economic uncertainty" made the PPP loan necessary to support the borrower's "continuing operations," it would look at the applicant's "individual circumstances."

[View SBA Dec. 9 guidancehere。See p. 19, Question and Answer #53.]

AGC's诉讼，，，，filed on Dec. 8 in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, contends that the group “is challenging the legality of the questionnaire and the legal adequacy of the process undertaken by both SBA and OMB in developing, approving and publishing the questionnaire for use.”

AGC says that the filing deals with “the manner by which SBA is now making its forgiveness determinations and even second-guessing borrower eligibility for PPP loans in the first place.”

AGC“鼓励”

AGC发言人Brian Turmail在12月10日的电子邮件中表示，SBA的新指南“鼓励”该协会“鼓励”该协会。新利luck但是他补充说，“我们的诉讼保持活跃”，而它寻求“额外的澄清和保证”，“该机构将根据贷款申请时的条件，而不是在此之后的条件上对宽恕申请进行审查。”

In its lawsuit, AGC contends that the process that led to the form and the questionnaire itself are in violation of the Paperwork Reduction Act and Administrative Procedures Act.

它要求法院限制公司在问卷上输入的信息的使用，直到SBA更改数据并向公众使用。

In addition, AGC asks the court to permanently block SBA from basing a decision to deny an applicant’s petition for PPP loan forgiveness only on information in the borrower’s submitted questionnaire.

该小组还要求法院将问卷提出至少60天的公众评论，并在审查评论后，根据这些提交的意见进行修改。

AGC also contends that OMB authorized SBA to use the questionnaire “in complete secrecy,” rather than releasing it and allowing a public-comment period.

“Resorting to a secret form that disregards congressional intent and retroactively changes the criteria for a loan is not due diligence; it is unlawful and needs to stop before employers are irrevocably harme.” Stephen E. Sandherr, AGC president and CEO, said in astatement，，，，

An SBA spokesperson said in a statement emailed to ENR that the agency "does not comment on pending lawsuits and litigation.”

与代理官员的讨论

Before filing the lawsuit, AGC representatives “had lengthy conversations with federal officials” regarding the PPP questionnaire and related matters, Turmail told ENR in a Dec. 8 email.

He added that those officials “made numerous promises to us, some of which they fulfilled, but too many others they did not.”

The association has recently joined with several hundred other business groups asking Congress to have the amounts of PPP loan forgiveness be considered tax-free.

But when it came to the issues connected to the questionnaire, Turmail said, AGC did not approach other associations about joining the lawsuit. “This one is our fight because so many of our members have expressed concerns about the SBA questionnaire to us," he said.

诉讼指出，问卷不要求借款人提供有关其业务的信息，截至他们申请贷款时，通常是去年春季进行的。

Instead, AGC argues, the questionnaire asks for financial information that came later. For example, the complaint says, the questionnaire asks for current bank statements and other information about a company’s current liquidity.

“This contradiction is deeply troubling to many borrowers because their success or failure over the balance of 2020 could not possibly have been knowable in those early days of the pandemic when the economy was headed into a tailspin,” says the filing.

PPP Background

PPP was established in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security, or CARES, Act, which was signed into law in March.

Under the program, companies that applied for a loan could apply later to SBA to have the amount forgiven if they used the proceeds only for payroll, rent and other basic expenses.

国会为该计划提供了最初的3490亿美元。当这在不到两周的时间内筋疲力尽时，立法者随后提供了311亿美元的额外费用。

But interest in the program waned and PPP expired on Aug. 8, with $134 billion uncommitted to loans.

SBA also reports that as of Nov. 22, it had received forgiveness requests totaling $83.2 billion.

Story updated on Dec. 10 with new guidance document from SBA.