“To amend the Small Business Act to make disaster loans available for damages caused by prolonged power outages, and for other purposes.”
No CRS summary available for this bill.
This section expands the definition of disaster under the Small Business Administration (SBA) disaster loan program to include prolonged power outages for purposes of economic injury disaster loans under subsection (b)(1)(A) and physical disaster loans to businesses, homeowners, and nonprofits under subsection (b)(2). For loans made due to such outages, it authorizes use of proceeds to purchase energy resilience systems (i.e., generators, solar panels, wind turbines, microgrids, fuel cells, batteries, and other electrical generation and storage technologies, as determined by the SBA Administrator) and to replace food and drink lost, destroyed, or rendered unfit for human consumption. It defines prolonged power outage as (1) for subsection (b)(1)(A), a power loss causing at least 25 homes, businesses, or other eligible recipients (or combination thereof) in a county or smaller political subdivision to each sustain uninsured property losses of at least 40% of estimated fair replacement value or pre-disaster fair market value, whichever is lower; and (2) for subsection (b)(2), at least 25 homes, businesses, or other eligible recipients (or combination thereof) in such an area concurrently without power for at least 48 hours.