[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3349 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
<DOC>
117th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. 3349
To require the Administrator of the Small Business Administration to
provide applicants for certain loans and grants with updates with
respect to those applications, and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
December 9, 2021
Mr. Risch (for himself, Mr. Hickenlooper, Ms. Cortez Masto, Mr.
Marshall, and Mr. Kennedy) introduced the following bill; which was
read twice and referred to the Committee on Small Business and
Entrepreneurship
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To require the Administrator of the Small Business Administration to
provide applicants for certain loans and grants with updates with
respect to those applications, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Streamlining EIDL Act''.
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act--
(1) the term ``Administration'' means the Small Business
Administration;
(2) the term ``Administrator'' means the Administrator of
the Administration;
(3) the terms ``compliance'' and ``improper payment'' have
the meanings given the terms in section 3351 of title 31,
United States Code;
(4) the term ``covered application''--
(A) means an application that is--
(i) for any assistance provided under
section 7(b)(2) of the Small Business Act (15
U.S.C. 636(b)(2)), including any loan or grant
made under section 1110 of the CARES Act (15
U.S.C. 9009); and
(ii) submitted to the Administrator on or
after the date of enactment of this Act; and
(B) includes an application that is--
(i) for an increase with respect to
assistance that is--
(I) described in subparagraph
(A)(i); and
(II) provided to the applicant
before the date of enactment of this
Act; and
(ii) submitted to the Administrator on or
after the date of enactment of this Act; and
(5) the term ``covered assistance'' means a loan or grant
made under section 7(b)(2) of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C.
636(b)(2)), including under section 1110 of the CARES Act (15
U.S.C. 9009), related to COVID-19.
SEC. 3. EIDL LOANS.
(a) Requirements.--The Administrator shall--
(1) not later than 7 days after the date on which the
Administrator receives a covered application, provide the
applicant with--
(A) notice that the Administrator has received the
application; and
(B) information regarding an office or official of
the Administration that the applicant may contact in
the event that the applicant has questions regarding
the application;
(2) not later than 21 days after the date on which the
Administrator receives a covered application, provide the
applicant with--
(A) a written report detailing the status of the
application and any requirements for completion of the
application, including any external or internal delays;
and
(B) an explanation regarding the appeals process
with respect to a covered application that the
Administrator disapproves; and
(3) not later than 45 days after the date on which the
Administrator receives a completed covered application that is
in accordance with all applicable requirements, including such
requirements as the Administrator may prescribe by regulation--
(A) review the application in its entirety; and
(B)(i) approve the application and make the loan
(or the increase in the loan amount) that is the
subject of the covered application if all applicable
requirements with respect to the applicable loan are
satisfied; or
(ii) disapprove the application and notify the
applicant in writing of the disapproval.
(b) Review and Reporting.--Not later than 90 days after the date of
enactment of this Act, the Administrator shall--
(1) conduct a comprehensive review of the process for
submitting a covered application, which shall focus on ways to
ensure that applicants submitting covered applications--
(A) are not asked to submit materials with respect
to such an application more than once;
(B) receive timely responses and updates from the
Administrator with respect to those covered
applications, including the information required under
paragraphs (1) and (2) of subsection (a); and
(C) receive the loans (or loan increases) sought in
those covered applications in a manner that complies
with subsection (a)(3); and
(2) submit to Congress a report regarding the review
conducted under paragraph (1).
SEC. 4. REPORTS.
(a) Report on Implementation of Inspector General
Recommendations.--Not later than 90 days after the date of enactment of
this Act, the Administrator shall submit to Congress a report on the
specific steps that the Administration has taken to meet the
recommendations provided by the Inspector General of the Administration
in the report issued on May 6, 2021, entitled ``SBA's Handling of
Identity Theft in the COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program'',
which shall include a description of--
(1) the system that the Administration has developed to
maintain and track all identity theft complaints related to
covered assistance;
(2) how the Administration is providing guidance,
assistance, and status updates to complainants that allege
their identity has been stolen;
(3) how the Administration is restoring identity theft
victims to their condition prior to fraud, including details on
how the Administration will file collateral releases and
specify if the Administration or the complainant is paying for
costs to file Uniform Commercial Code lien release documents;
(4) the process of the Administration for removing
fraudulent covered assistance, and related Uniform Commercial
Code filing fees, from the financial records of the
Administration, including how--
(A) the system described in paragraph (1)--
(i) will charge off and remove partially or
fully disbursed covered assistance from the
financial records; and
(ii) addresses charge off or removal of
related Uniform Commercial Code filing fees;
and
(B) the Administration is differentiating between--
(i) routine defaults in covered assistance
that--
(I) have been or will be charged
off; and
(II) are required to be submitted
to the Department of the Treasury for
collection; and
(ii) identity theft-related covered
assistance that the Administration is required
to charge off without being sent to the
Department of the Treasury for collection;
(5) the process of the Administration for tracking the
recovery of funds from fraudsters to offset the outstanding
identity theft-related covered assistance before any charge off
action; and
(6) actions the Administration has taken to recover
improper payments related to identity theft-related covered
assistance and how the Administration is taking steps to be in
compliance.
(b) Regular Reports.--The Administrator shall submit to Congress--
(1) a monthly report that, in order to identify individual
allegations of identity theft that have not been refiled,
reconciles--
(A) applications submitted during the period
beginning on March 1, 2020, and ending on January 31,
2021, for covered assistance based on identity theft
allegations; and
(B) applications based on refiled allegations of
identity theft relating to the covered assistance
described in subparagraph (A); and
(2) not later than 180 days after the date on which the
first report under paragraph (1) is submitted, a detailed plan
on how the Administration will attempt, or has attempted, to
contact the remaining individuals whose identity theft
allegations have not been refiled.
<all>