This week, the White House and Small Business Administration (SBA) announced significant changes were being made to the parameters of the Paycheck Protection Program. The changes largely serve to make the program even more attractive to small businesses with an extra focus on those located in underserved and minority communities. Primary amongst the changes is a period of exclusive access to PPP loans for a two-week period that began Wednesday, February 23 and will run through Tuesday, March 9. During that period, only small businesses – defined as those with fewer than 20 employees – will be allowed to apply for PPP assistance. In addition, the announced changes will eliminate a couple of exclusionary restrictions that were contained in the original program – one being for small business owners with prior non-fraud felony convictions and the other being for owners who have defaulted or been delinquent on payments of federal student loan debts. Further, the PPP will now allow non-citizen small business owners who are lawful US residents to use their Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) to apply for PPP assistance. Borrowers can apply for the Paycheck Protection Program by downloading the First Draw PPP Loan Application or if applicable, the Second Draw PPP Loan Application and working with a participating PPP lender through the SBA Lender Match Tool.