Farm Service Agency offices have been advised to begin processing new loan requests that were submitted during the government shutdown, according to an agency memo circulated Thursday.
Loan processors should process applications based on the postmarked or hand-delivered date if applicants had submitted the information required during the lapse in funding, the memo advises. The agency will send a new letter and give applicants 15 more days to send required information in cases where the deadline for doing so had expired during the lapse in funding.
"No applicant will be penalized because of the lapse in funding," reads the memo, which was distributed to state offices.
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The memo says that term limits cannot be extended for any reason, so "if a loan could not be closed before the restoration of funding and closing the loan after the restoration of funding will put the applicant over a term limit, then the applicant is not eligible to receive the loan even if it was approved and obligated before the lapse in funding."
Offices can now resume loan servicing activities, the memo says. Payments received from customers during the lapse in funding "will be given day of credit according to the date received." If the received date isn't known, the postmarked date will be used as the day of credit.
According to the memo, borrowers' "whose payment due date occurred during the lapse in funding and who have not made payment to bring the account current are delinquent as of Nov. 13." Borrowers that had payments due between Oct. 1 and Nov. 12 will be considered 90 calendar days past due on Feb. 11 of next year, it says.
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