Many family farms across the country have been struggling to access the full benefits of the Paycheck Protection Program since it was created in March of last year. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisc., is leading efforts to advance additional relief and flexibility through a bipartisan bill in Congress before the Senate recesses this week. The PPP Flexibility for Farmers, Ranchers, and the Self-Employed Act includes a legislative fix authored by 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. In a virtual appearance during the North American Agricultural Journalists, Baldwin explains the PPP originally failed small family farms because the loan amount was typically based on either payroll or net profits from the previous year. However, many small family farms do not maintain a payroll, and many farms, particularly dairy farms, saw a string of difficult years that didn’t yield net profits.