(NAFB) – Senator Tammy Baldwin, Chair of the Senate Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee, this week introduced bipartisan legislation to extend more relief to farmers and small businesses.

The PPP Flexibility for Farmers, Ranchers, and the Self-Employed Act offers changes to the Paycheck Protection Program. The bill includes a legislative fix authored by Senator Baldwin that would make critical changes to PPP loan calculations to allow self-employed farmers and ranchers to apply for more generous PPP loans based on their gross income, retroactively.

Under Baldwin’s legislation, any self-employed farmer, even those who already received a PPP loan based on their net income and got it forgiven, could now get a loan for the difference between the gross and the net income loan amounts.

Baldwin says of the legislation, “farmers will now have an opportunity to receive an increased benefit with more generous loans.”

Two other Democrats and four Republicans joined Baldwin in introducing the bill.