U.S. Travel: EIDL Reopening to Agriculture First Jeopardizes Recovery

By Matt Turner May 5, 2020 1:07pm

U.S. Travel Association executive vice president for public affairs and policy Tori Emerson Barnes says the Small Business Administration's (SBA) decision to reopen the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) and EIDL Advance application portal (at first) only to agriculture-related businesses jeopardizes the strength of the broader economic recovery.

In a statement provided to Travel Agent, Emerson Barnes said, "Excluding major segments of the economy from emergency relief funding not only hurts small businesses and workers, but jeopardizes the strength of the broader economic recovery.

"Non-profit entities—such as destination marketing organizations and arts and culture groups—are essential for driving consumer demand to their regions, and therefore will be major engines of the recovery. They, too, have suffered severe economic hits that have necessitated layoffs and furloughs in almost every case, and without their work to bring customers back many small businesses will not survive even once recovery begins. We urge the Small Business Administration to open the EIDL application process to non-profit groups that play a vital role in economic development, and to non-agricultural small businesses."

The SBA reopened the EIDL portal on Monday, May 4 to agricultural businesses, including farmers, ranchers and more. “The SBA will begin accepting new EIDL applications on a limited basis only, in order to provide unprecedented relief to U.S. agricultural businesses,” it said in an announcement. For agricultural businesses that have already applied, they will not need to re-apply and the SBA will move forward and process these applications. All other EIDL that were submitted before the portal stopped accepting new applications on April 15 will be processed in the order they were submitted.

U.S. Travel: EIDL Reopening to Agriculture First Jeopardizes Recovery

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