Executives for more than 100 large, influential companies, including Starbucks, Microsoft, Salesforce and Mastercard, have sent Congress a letter urging lawmakers to provide more financial support to small businesses affected by the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.

Without more help, many U.S. small businesses will not survive what’s turned into the biggest economic downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s, the chief executives wrote to Congressional leaders in their letter. Small businesses employ about half of U.S. workers.

“We cannot stress enough the urgent need to act,” the letter said. “By Labor Day, we foresee a wave of permanent closures if the right steps are not taken soon. Allowing small businesses to fail will turn temporary job losses into permanent ones.”

The shockwaves of mass small-business closures could ripple throughout the economy, driving unemployment higher, reducing consumer spending (which accounts for about 70% of GDP), and hurting other small businesses, like promotional products companies, that rely on B2B sales.

“Small businesses are too critical to our country’s economic strength to let fail,” the executives wrote in their letter. “From retailers and restaurants to consulting firms and manufacturers, small business owners are facing a future of potential financial ruin that will make the nation’s current economic downturn last years longer than it must.”

Yelp data indicates 41% of business closures since 3/1 are permanent

1st wave of closures were already struggling businesses

2nd wave of closures were those trying to hold on

Preventing a 3rd wave is why we need more #PPP https://t.co/1hKysKGo24

— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) July 29, 2020

The executives are calling for the federal government to provide guaranteed loans at favorable terms that enable businesses to sustain themselves and transform “well into 2021.” They say business owners should have flexibility in how the funds are used. The hardest hit businesses that are not publicly traded should be eligible for at least partial loan forgiveness, the executives say. There needs to be equitable distribution of funds that ensures small businesses run by people of color receive adequate funding to sustain and ultimately build their businesses, the executives maintain.

In late March 2020, the federal government launched the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) to help businesses affected by COVID-19’s economic impacts. About $670 billion was allocated to the program. So far, about $521 billion has been distributed as low-interest loans that could potentially be forgiven altogether if a business uses at least 60% of the funds it receives on payroll.

Last week, the PPP program reopened to first-time applicants. Congress extended the application deadline for the loans until Aug. 8.

Despite such money being available, some congressional leaders believe more needs to be done to help America’s small businesses through these dire times.

“We are now beginning to see that as the PPP funds are being exhausted, some companies are having to face once again the potential of having to lay off some of their workers. And so that’s why it is time for a second round of PPP assistance,” Sen. Marco Rubio, the Senate Small Business Committee chairman, said last week.