On Tuesday April 21st, the Senate passed a bipartisan bill worth some $480 billion that would replenish funds for emergency small business lending programs among other things. The good news is that thanks to our collective advocacy efforts, this time they included farmers as eligible for SBA Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL).
USDA previously confirmed that farmers are eligible for Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans and those are also being replenished with $310 billion in new funding. The EIDL and PPP programs offer support for hemp farmers injured by the Coronavirus disaster.
We are excited that our advocacy efforts yielded real results for hemp farmers. Last week Vote Hemp lead a coalition letter to SBA requesting that they include hemp farmers in Coronavirus disaster programs. We shared our letter and SBA’s response with our allies in Congress and they listened.
We want to thank the coalition members, U.S. Hemp Growers Association, Hemp Industries Association, U.S. Hemp Roundtable, National Industrial Hemp Council, Midwest Hemp Council, Hemp Feed Coalition and Nebraska Hemp Industries Association, for joining with us in this effort on behalf of hemp farmers. We also want to thank you for sending letters to President Trump urging him to support including disaster aid for hemp farmers. We expect he will sign the bill later this week.
We urge you to visit the SBA web site to learn more about how to apply for EIDL loans as well as the Paycheck Protection Program. If you qualify, we urge you to act quickly to apply as demand for these programs has been strong.