Earlier this week, the Big “I” joined a number of organizations in sending a letter to the leadership of the U.S. House and Senate Small Business Committees urging support for S. 4117, “The Paycheck Protection Program Small Business Forgiveness Act,” sponsored by Senators Kevin Cramer (R-North Dakota) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Arizona).

This important legislation would ensure that small business owners who took Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans, including Big “I” members, can focus their time, energy, and resources on their business and communities, instead of allocating significant time and resources into completing complex PPP forgiveness forms. Specifically, S. 4117 would forgive PPP loans of less than $150,000 upon the borrower’s completion of a simple, one-page forgiveness document.

PPP loans of $150,000 and under account for 85% of total PPP recipients, but less than 26% of PPP loan dollars. Expediting the loan forgiveness process for many of these hard-hit businesses will save more than $7 billion dollars and hours of paperwork.

Small businesses and their employees are the backbone of our nation’s economy and communities. The Big “I” strongly believes that their time and resources would be better focused on getting the economy safely back up and running, not processing burdensome paperwork.

Wyatt Stewart is Big “I” senior director of federal government affairs.