To amend the Small Business Act to make disaster loans available for damages caused by prolonged power outages, and for other purposes.
This bill, introduced by Ms. Stevens, would broaden the Small Business Act to treat prolonged power outages as a qualifying disaster for SBA disaster loans (covering both physical-damage loans and economic-injury loans). It would also allow loan funds to be used specifically to buy energy resilience equipment (generators, solar, wind, microgrids, batteries, etc.) and to replace food or beverages lost due to the outage. The bill defines what counts as a “prolonged power outage” for each loan type and sets thresholds tied to affected households or businesses and the level of uninsured losses or outage duration. In short, it aims to help small businesses recover from long electrical outages by providing loan support and enabling investments in resilience.
Key Points
- 1Prolonged power outages would be added as a qualifying disaster under the Small Business Act for both physical-damage and economic-injury disaster loans.
- 2Loan proceeds could be used, in addition to existing authorized uses, to purchase energy resilience systems and to replace food/drink lost due to the outage.
- 3Definition of “prolonged power outage” has two parts:
- 4- For physical-damage loans: a loss affecting at least 25 homes or 25 businesses (or a mix) in a county with uninsured losses of at least 40% of the property value.
- 5- For economic-injury loans: a loss affecting at least 25 homes or 25 businesses (or a mix) in a county that simultaneously experiences power loss for at least 48 hours.
- 6The energy resilience equipment approved for purchases would be those that provide power generation/storage, as determined by the SBA Administrator (e.g., generators, solar, wind, microgrids, batteries, etc.).
- 7The bill makes a conforming numbering change in the Small Business Act to insert the new provision (18) after the current subdivisions.