Photo courtesy of NOAA Fisheries
US harvesters seek to fix ‘oversight’ blocking crew payroll from COVID loans
The Seafood Harvesters of America (SHA) has written US senators Marco Rubio (a Florida Republican) and Ben Cardin (a Maryland Democrat) -- the chairman and ranking member of the Small Business Committee respectively -- to fix what the group believes was "an oversight" that's now blocking fishermen from taking full advantage of the small business loans made available in the recently passed Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.
In a letter sent Thursday, SHA, a group that represents 18 US fishing-related trade associations, seeks to allow "fishing businesses to include payments to fishing vessel crew members reported as fishing boat proceeds on Form 1099-MISC as eligible payroll costs under the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP)".
The PPP refers to the new program that authorized up to $349 billion in forgivable loans to small businesses to pay their employees during the COVID-19 crisis.
"We believe it was an oversight that fishing vessel crewmember wages cannot be considered in the fishing business's PPP loan application as submitted by the vessel owner or captain, and hope it can be easily fixed as [the Department of] Treasury completes their final rule for the PPP," wrote Robert Dooley and Leigh Habegger, SHA's president and executive director, respectively.
The change will reduce administrative burdens, as one fishing vessel could have anywhere from two to more than 20 crew members over the relevant PPP loan time period. Many of the crew members may not have existing business bank accounts, and many banks are currently overwhelmed and limiting PPP loans to only existing business customers, they said.
On a related subject, SHA on Friday wrote the chairs and minority leaders of the Senate and House to provide more relief to the commercial fishing industry, joining a chorus of such efforts from the past few weeks.
SHA's request includes adding another $1.5bn to the $300 million in emergency funds earlier provided the seafood industry by the CARES Act. It's asking for $2bn to provide the US Department of Agriculture so that it can buy US-produced seafood and no less than $500m to lend and grant states to improve waterfront infrastructure.
SHA also seeks oversight of the National Marine Fisheries Service's observer program. "We are increasingly concerned about [the] inconsistent way the NMFS regional offices have issued waivers for observer requirements," the group said in its letter.
Both letters can be read here.