Bankers — and many small businesses they have lent coronavirus relief money to — are asking Congress to approve a simplified process for forgiving most of the small business loans under $150,000 disbursed through the Paycheck Protection Program. Those loans total about $140 billion, representing nearly 87 percent of all the businesses that took part in the $521 billion Paycheck Protection Program. Many of them would have already been eligible to keep most of the money; this plan would simplify the process. The virus has changed how lobbyists do their work. Mr. Howard has spent nearly two decades as a lobbyist in Washington after stints as a top congressional aide and in the White House for both President George H.W.

Source: New York Times July 19, 2020 19:30 UTC