Following a cacophony of complaints from lenders and small businesses, officials say the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) will begin forgiving Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans by the end of the week of Sept. 27 or early the week of Oct. 4.

In early August, the SBA began allowing American businesses that had received PPP loans to apply to have the loans forgiven – essentially turning them into grants.

Since then, the SBA has received 96,000 applications from businesses seeking to have their loans forgiven. No applications had yet been approved, according to a recent statement from William Manger, the SBA’s chief of staff and associate administrator. PPP recipients must apply for forgiveness and be granted approval to have the payback obligation erased.

The Wall Street Journal reported that a Treasury Department spokesperson said the SBA plans to approve forgiveness requests quickly once the approval process begins late this week or early next. Loans above $2 million are expected to be subject to greater scrutiny and could take longer to be approved for forgiveness.

Banks, which issued the SBA loans, along with loan recipients have complained that the forgiveness process is too complex and laborious, which they maintain hurts still-struggling businesses.

“It is actually more complicated than any of us even thought,” said Jack Murphy, president of business banking at Citizens Financial Group, according to WSJ. “It’s taking us two weeks to process an application. Four to six contacts between small-business owners … and the folks that are trying to process the forgiveness applications.”

With the loan forgiveness process reportedly poised to begin in earnest, the future of the PPP remains murky. The program launched in the spring as part of the CARES Act, making $670 billion in potentially forgivable loans available to U.S. businesses impacted by economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.

Ultimately, 5.2 million loans totaling about $525 billion were issued before the PPP officially closed on Aug. 8. Still, businesses continue to suffer from the pandemic, and there have been efforts to reopen the program – none of which have come to fruition.

In September, Rep. Steve Chabot, an Ohio Republican, and Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, a Washington Republican, put forward a proposal in the House that would extend the PPP by allowing small businesses with fewer than 300 employees to apply for a second PPP loan. The proposal came with a special discharge petition that could expedite a vote on the measure. Chabot and Herrera Beutler need a simple majority – 218 signatures – to force an expedited vote. Herrera Beutler said on Sept. 30 that she’d so far collected nearly 180 signatures.

We now have 179 signatures for my discharge petition to bypass congressional gridlock, temporarily take control away from Speaker Pelosi, & bring small business relief to the House Floor.

Momentum & support for this crucial effort is growing — stay tuned for more updates.

— Jaime Herrera Beutler (@HerreraBeutler) September 30, 2020

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin were this week in talks over a potential compromise that could see a new coronavirus relief package for American households and businesses, but so far have not reached a deal. The Democrat-controlled House passed a $2.2 trillion stimulus package (proposed by Dems) on Thursday, Oct. 1 in a 214-207 vote, with Republicans and some Democrats making up the "no" votes. The package sets aside money for PPP loans to small businesses.

Nonetheless, the stimulus plan has to pass the Senate before it can become law and be put into practice. That's unlikely to happen, with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell saying the two sides are “very far apart.”