Amy K. Bassett joined the U.S. Small Business Administration’s New Hampshire District right after graduating from Plymouth State College in 1990. She worked her way up to district director in Maine for three years before assuming the same role in New Hampshire in December.

Q. You were in Maine when the pandemic began and the first Paycheck Protection Program was rolled out. What was that like?

A. There was just so much uncertainty with everything kind of shutting down, and SBA had all these new programs. It was very frenetic. We were trying to keep ourselves up to speed, just trying to help as many people as we possibly could.

Q. A lot of people were frustrated when it first was launched.

A. I certainly felt and heard the frustrations from our partners and business owners because they wanted the help and they wanted it then, but this was billions of dollars in brand-new programs. For example, with PPP, that was something the SBA didn’t have before and when the legislation was passed, within a week we stood up that program so people could apply, vendors could apply — that was amazing.

Were there faults along the way? Absolutely, but everybody worked so hard to move that out, and it may not have felt like that from the business or the partners’ side, but I know truly that that was the intent there.

Q. How is the PPP2 rollout different?

A. Even though I’m in a different state, it seems the same, but it’s a lot smoother. A lot of the groundwork was laid the first time, so a lot of the rules, policies and systems were already in place and just needed some adjustments. The looming questions have been addressed. There’ll always be refinements going forward.

Q. For the first PPP, there was instant approval. Now it takes a couple of days before the loan is approved. Are you looking at every loan?

A. Yes. To be clear, the district office where we are in New Hampshire, we have no role in actually approving or processing the application yet. The applications all go to the banks or credit unions or whatever lender it is, and then the lender submits them to SBA through an online system.

This time, there is a different portal being utilized and they’ve built in some different checks and balances, so those kinds of checks are being done more in detail than last time. It’s going to help us when it comes to forgiveness.

Q. I think forgiveness is something that people are a little frustrated about.

A. I think a lot of people were holding off on submittals because they thought it might get simplified, and when that didn’t happen, then people started submitting. They’ve actually been processing a high percentage of what was received. There were 5.2 million PPP loans and over $100 billion worth had been in the forgiveness process. They’ve made good strides, for sure.

Q. Do you need forgiveness for the first loan if you’re going for a second?

A. No. In order to apply for the second draw, the forgiveness does not need to be completely prefaced for your first PPP loan. That being said, the applicant has to have sent or projected to spend all of those first-draw funds before the new loans will be disbursed, but it does not have to be completely processed to forgive.

Q. Are there other SBA programs available?

A. Debt relief is back. In the first CARES Act, SBA had authority and funds to make up to six months’ worth of payments on all existing SBA-backed loans, so there were additional appropriations in the new bill to reinvigorate that. Again, it’s to help people who have been most hit. The SBA has all that information. We are working with lenders to make those payments so a borrower doesn’t have to ask for it. That’s just going to happen automatically. That’s a big thing, and that’s going to start in February. Then we’ll start making some more payments for those loans.

There also are enhancements to our regular SBA loan programs involving fee relief. It will make it less costly on a borrower to take a new SBA loan in the 7(a) and 504 loan programs. We’re also increasing the guarantee percentages to the banks on our 7(a) loans to give them that added comfort level to provide new financing at this time.

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