On Wednesday of this week, the U.S. Senate passed the Paycheck Protection Program Flexibility Act (H.R. 7010, passed by the House last week) which provides greater flexibility and time for borrowers to use the funds as intended - keeping employees on the payroll. The President signed the legislation today.

• The new law extends the forgiveness period that borrowers can spend funds from 8 weeks to 24 weeks and lessens the payroll expenditure requirement from 75% to 60%.
• With regard to forgiveness requirements for headcount levels, borrowers have the 24 week period to restore workforce levels to pre-pandemic levels.  If borrowers are unable to restore to full levels, there are two exceptions including the inability to rehire past employees and find new employees or the inability to return to the same level of business activity due to compliance with safety operating requirements. 
• Repayment of the loans can be extended to five years, instead of two, and some payroll taxes can be deferred.