This week saw a flurry of proposals on Capitol Hill aiming to fix a common target: areas where lawmakers say the Paycheck Protection Program has come up short.

The PPP has been immensely popular, but the forgivable loans program – and the banks administering it – have endured charges of playing favorites and ignoring applications from smaller or minority-owned businesses. The program has delivered over half a trillion dollars to businesses around the country so far. In March, Congress approved $310 billion in a second round of funding for PPP. As of Thursday evening, $193 billion from that current allotment had been spent.

For every report of a businesses successfully getting funds – Marco Rubio’s twitter feed is full of them – there also seems to be a story of businesses being shut out.

Here’s a few of the ideas that lawmakers are pushing hard to either amend the program or do an end-run around it.

Let cities administer loans and grants and ‘step aside’

On Friday, over 100 mayors announced their support for a plan led by Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Steve Daines (R-MT) to help cities give out money to businesses themselves.

The proposal would dole out $50 billion to local relief funds and then “step aside” to allow localities to manage the distribution. The money would be targeted for very small businesses which, Booker noted on a call with reporters, "are less likely to participate in PPP."

Booker and Daines have written that the idea would “build on what is already working across the country.”

The structure of this program contrasts with the Paycheck Protection Program, which was designed to move money through financial institutions. When PPP was unveiled, Small Business Administrator Jovita Carranza called it an “unprecedented public-private partnership,” adding that it would “position lenders as the single point-of-contact for small businesses.”

Booker highlighted racial disparities with the PPP and he talked about the plight of small businesses during an appearance on Yahoo Finance this week. They are “being wrecked by this crisis, they're in financial distress,” he said, adding “this is not the time to be thinking small.”

The plan was formally introduced in the Senate on Thursday and Booker says he thinks it has a real shot of being included, saying it’s “one of the only bipartisan proposals circulating right now around small business relief.”

The mayors, who joined with Booker to announce their support in a press conference, included Eric Garcetti of Los Angeles and Muriel Bowser of Washington D.C. Congress “should pass this forthwith, get it done,” said Garcetti. “You have our 100% support,” Bowser said.

Proposals to have the government pay payroll directly

There are also ideas from both sides of the aisle to have the government give money directly to businesses without a bank in the middle.

On Thursday, a group of Democratic senators unveiled their “Rebuilding Main Street Act,” which would allow employers to “share” payroll costs with the federal government. The proposal also would have Washington give out grants to businesses to help cover fixed expenses like real estate.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) said their idea “avoids many of the design flaws that still exist with the PPP program.”

The Democratic proposal echoes some ideas from across the aisle. A Republican effort, led by Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, says “the federal government should pay up to 80% of wages for each worker currently on payroll” with a cap of $50,000 per employee. Van Hollen said Thursday he hadn’t reached out to his GOP colleagues on their proposal.

Amending the PPP

On Tuesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi introduced her $3 trillion HEROES proposal with provisions to change the way the PPP itself operates.

Her bill would extend the amount of time that recipients have to spend relief funds. Currently, small businesses are required to spend the money they receive within eight weeks. The bill would extend this requirement to 24 weeks. The proposal also changes the requirement that businesses spend at least 75% of the funds on payroll.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) is one the key backers of the PPP program on Capitol Hill. He’s far from a supporter of Pelosi’s bill but has endorsed similar ideas to give “a little more flexibility” to the program given how the economic crisis has unfolded.

Lawmakers also have to wrestle with whether to give the PPP program more money. Pelosi’s bill doesn’t offer any more funding to the PPP but, as of Thursday evening, the program has spent about two-thirds of the money from its second round of funding.

Observers don’t expect a final deal until June or July. By then, businesses may have one more option with the Federal Reserve’s Main Street Lending Program which will offer low-cost loans to small businesses for the coming years. The Fed says the program will begin soon.

Ben Werschkul is a producer for Yahoo Finance in Washington, DC.

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