II
Calendar No. 8
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 68
To prohibit the suspension of collections on loans made to small businesses
related to COVID–19, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
JANUARY9, 2025
Ms. E
RNST(for herself, Mr. YOUNG, Mrs. BLACKBURN, Mr. LANKFORD, Mr.
C
URTIS, Mr. SCHMITT, and Mr. HAWLEY) introduced the following bill;
which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Small Business
and Entrepreneurship
F
EBRUARY10, 2025
Reported by Ms. E
RNST, with amendments
[Omit the parts struck through and insert the parts printed in italic]
A BILL
To prohibit the suspension of collections on loans made to
small businesses related to COVID–19, and for other
purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Complete COVID Col-4
lections Act’’. 5
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SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 1
In this Act: 2
(1) A
DMINISTRATION; ADMINISTRATOR.—The 3
terms ‘‘Administration’’ and ‘‘Administrator’’ mean 4
the Small Business Administration and the Adminis-5
trator thereof, respectively. 6
(2) C
OVERED FUNDS .—The term ‘‘covered 7
funds’’ means amounts made available for COVID– 8
19 relief under— 9
(A) the Coronavirus Preparedness and Re-10
sponse Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2020 11
(Public Law 116–123; 134 Stat. 146); 12
(B) the Families First Coronavirus Re-13
sponse Act (Public Law 116–127; 134 Stat. 14
178); 15
(C) the CARES Act (Public Law 116–136; 16
134 Stat. 281); 17
(D) the Paycheck Protection Program and 18
Health Care Enhancement Act (Public Law 19
116–139; 134 Stat. 620); 20
(E) division M or N of the Consolidated 21
Appropriations Act, 2021 (Public Law 116– 22
260; 134 Stat.
19091182); or 23
(F) the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 24
(Public Law 117–2; 135 Stat. 4). 25
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•S 68 RS
(3) COVERED LOAN.—The term ‘‘covered loan’’ 1
means— 2
(A) a loan guaranteed under paragraph 3
(36) or (37) of section 7(a) of the Small Busi-4
ness Act (15 U.S.C. 636(a)); and 5
(B) a loan made under section 7(b)(2) of 6
the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 636(b)(2)) 7
related to COVID–19. 8
(4) C
OVERED PROGRAM .—The term ‘‘covered 9
program’’ means— 10
(A) loans made under paragraph (36) or 11
(37) of section 7(a) of the Small Business Act 12
(15 U.S.C. 636(a)); 13
(B) economic injury disaster loans made 14
under section 7(b)(2) of the Small Business Act 15
(15 U.S.C. 636(b)(2)) related to COVID–19; 16
(C) advances provided pursuant to section 17
1110 of the CARES Act (15 U.S.C. 9009), sec-18
tion 331 of division N of the Consolidated Ap-19
propriations Act, 2021 (15 U.S.C. 9009b), or 20
section 5002(b) of the American Rescue Plan 21
Act of 2021 (15 U.S.C. 9009 note); 22
(D) restaurant revitalization grants made 23
under section 5003 of the American Rescue 24
Plan Act of 2021 (15 U.S.C. 9009c); and 25
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•S 68 RS
(E) grants for shuttered venue operators 1
made under section 324 of division N of the 2
Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (15 3
U.S.C. 9009a). 4
(5) I
MPROPER PAYMENT .—The term ‘‘improper 5
payment’’ has the meaning given the term in section 6
3351 of title 31, United States Code. 7
SEC. 3. SPECIAL INSPECTOR GENERAL FOR PANDEMIC RE-8
COVERY. 9
(a) E
XTENSION.—Section 4018 of the CARES Act 10
(15 U.S.C. 9053) is amended— 11
(1) in subsection (c)(1), in the matter preceding 12
subparagraph (A)— 13
(A) by inserting ‘‘or the Administrator of 14
the Small Business Administration (referred to 15
in this
sectionsubsection as the ‘Adminis-16
trator’)’’ after ‘‘the Secretary of the Treasury’’; 17
(B) by inserting ‘‘or the Administrator’’ 18
after ‘‘established by the Secretary’’; 19
(C) by inserting ‘‘or any assistance pro-20
vided under any covered program’’ after ‘‘under 21
this Act’’ each place that term appears; and 22
(D) by inserting ‘‘or the Administrator’’ 23
after ‘‘management by the Secretary’’; 24
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•S 68 RS
(2) in subsection (h), by striking ‘‘the date 5 1
years after March27,2020the enactment of this 2
Act’’ and inserting ‘‘September 30, 2030’’; and 3
(3) by adding at the end the following: 4
‘‘(k) C
OORDINATION AND PROVISION OFINFORMA-5
TION.— 6
‘‘(1) C
OORDINATION.—In carrying out the du-7
ties, responsibilities, and authorities of the Special 8
Inspector General under this section, the Special In-9
spector General shall coordinate with, and receive 10
the cooperation of, the Administrator of the Small 11
Business Administration and the Inspector General 12
of the Small Business Administration. 13
‘‘(2) I
NFORMATION.—The Administrator of the 14
Small Business Administration shall provide data 15
and information related to covered programs to the 16
Special Inspector General in the same manner as the 17
Administrator provides that data and information to 18
the Inspector General of the Small Business Admin-19
istration. 20
‘‘(l) C
OVEREDPROGRAM.—In this section, the term 21
‘covered program’ has the meaning given the term in sec-22
tion 2 of the Complete COVID Collections Act.’’. 23
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SEC. 4. FRAUD ENFORCEMENT HARMONIZATION. 1
(a) E
MERGENCYRELIEF ANDTAXPAYERPROTEC-2
TIONS.—Section 4003 of the CARES Act (15 U.S.C. 3
9042) is amended by adding at the end the following: 4
‘‘(i) F
RAUDENFORCEMENT HARMONIZATION.—Not-5
withstanding any other provision of law, any criminal 6
charge or civil enforcement action alleging that a business, 7
State, or municipality engaged in fraud or similarly re-8
lated crime with respect to any loan, loan guarantee, or 9
other investment made under this section shall be filed not 10
later than 10 years after the offense was committed.’’. 11
(b) G
RANTS FORSHUTTEREDVENUEOPERATORS.— 12
Section 324 of division N of the Consolidated Appropria-13
tions Act, 2021 (15 U.S.C. 9009a) is amended by adding 14
at the end the following: 15
‘‘(g) F
RAUDENFORCEMENTHARMONIZATION.—Not-16
withstanding any other provision of law, any criminal 17
charge or civil enforcement action alleging that
abusiness, 18
State,ormunicipalityan eligible person or entity engaged 19
in fraud or similarly related crime with respect to any 20
grant made under this section shall be filed not later than 21
10 years after the offense was committed.’’. 22
(c) R
ESTAURANTREVITALIZATIONGRANTS.—Sec-23
tion 5003 of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (15 24
U.S.C. 9009c) is amended by adding at the end the fol-25
lowing: 26
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‘‘(d) FRAUDENFORCEMENTHARMONIZATION.—Not-1
withstanding any other provision of law, any criminal 2
charge or civil enforcement action alleging that abusiness, 3
State,ormunicipalityan eligible entity engaged in fraud 4
or similarly related crime with respect to any grant made 5
under this section shall be filed not later than 10 years 6
after the offense was committed.’’. 7
SEC. 5. PROHIBITION ON SUSPENDING COLLECTIONS ON 8
SBA LOANS RELATED TO COVID–19. 9
(a) R
EFERRAL OFCLAIMS.—The Administrator shall 10
refer to the Department of the Treasury any claim for 11
collection related to a covered loan under $100,000. 12
(b) D
EPARTMENT OF THE TREASURYDETERMINA-13
TION.—The Department of the Treasury shall render a 14
final decision as to suspend, end, or make collection on 15
a claim referred to the Department of the Treasury by 16
the Administrator under subsection (a). 17
(c) B
RIEFINGS ANDTESTIMONY.— 18
(1) M
ONTHLY BRIEFINGS.—Not later than 30 19
days after the date of enactment of this Act, and 20
every 30 days thereafter, the Administrator shall 21
brief the Committee on Small Business and Entre-22
preneurship of the Senate and the Committee on 23
Small Business of the House of Representatives on 24
the progress of the Administrator in pursuing the 25
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collection of claims related to covered loans and 1
transferring claims to the Department of the Treas-2
ury for collection in accordance with subchapter II 3
of chapter 37 of title 31, United States Code. 4
(2) T
ESTIMONY.— 5
(A) I
N GENERAL.—The Administrator 6
shall testify annually before the Committee on 7
Small Business and Entrepreneurship of the 8
Senate and the Committee on Small Business 9
of the House of Representatives on— 10
(i) the implementation of collections of 11
claims related to covered loans; 12
(ii) improper payments related to cov-13
ered programs; and 14
(iii) the compliance of the Administra-15
tion with the reporting requirements under 16
subchapter IV of chapter 33 of title 31, 17
United States Code. 18
(B) N
ONDELEGATION.—The Administrator 19
may not delegate the responsibility under sub-20
paragraph (A) to any other individual. 21
SEC. 6. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE COVID–19 PROGRAM 22
FRAUD REPORT. 23
(a) R
EQUIREMENT.—Not later than 90 days after the 24
date of enactment of this Act, and every month thereafter, 25
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the Attorney General shall submit to Congress a report 1
on activities of the Department of Justice related to covered 2
programs, which shall include— 3
(1) a summary of the information contained in 4
the report, specifically the total number of prosecu-5
tions, the total dollar amount recovered by prosecu-6
tions, the total number of referrals and source of 7
such referrals, and the total number of declined 8
cases and reasons for declining; 9
(2) with respect to each covered program— 10
(A) the number of prosecutions and disposi-11
tion of each prosecution; 12
(B) the dollar amount recovered from pros-13
ecutions; 14
(C) the number of declined cases and the 15
reasons for declining; 16
(D) the number of referrals— 17
(i) from the Department of Justice; 18
and 19
(ii) from sources other than the De-20
partment of Justice, such as other inspec-21
tors general of other agencies; and 22
(E) the disposition of each referral de-23
scribed in subparagraph (D), specifically wheth-24
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•S 68 RS
er the referral resulted in prosecution or dec-1
lination; and 2
(3) any additional matters as the Attorney Gen-3
eral determines appropriate. 4
SEC. 7. RECOVERIES TRANSPARENCY. 5
Not later than 60 days after the date of enactment 6
of this Act, the Pandemic Response Accountability Com-7
mittee established under section 15010 of division B of 8
the CARES Act (Public Law 116–136; 134 Stat. 533) 9
shall establish and maintain on the website of the Com-10
mittee real-time data relating to covered funds recovered 11
by the Federal Government, which shall be broken out by 12
type of covered funds and dollar amount of covered funds 13
recovered by the Federal Government. 14
SEC. 8. FRAUD RECOVERY COLLECTIONS. 15
Any collection of amounts that were obtained through 16
a covered program as a result of fraud shall be applied sole-17
ly towards reduction of the Federal debt. 18
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8
119
TH
CONGRESS
1
ST
S
ESSION
S. 68 A BILL
To prohibit the suspension of collections on loans
made to small businesses related to COVID–19,
and for other purposes.
F
EBRUARY
10, 2025
Reported with amendments
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