Faced with the task of going through millions of applications to forgive Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin raised the possibility of simply approving all of the smaller ones, according to the Washington Post. During a congressional hearing Friday, he argued that the federal government consider this option, which he said would be easier than going through all of the applications and either approving or denying forgiveness on a case-by-case business—at least if the loans were below a certain threshold. This would also have the effect of releasing millions of companies from debt they'd accumulated to stay in business—about 70 percent of all loans from the program were below $50,000.

At the same time, such a step could increase the prevalence of fraud within the program, as the government would stop verifying whether the funds were used for the purposes intended, namely keeping workers on the payroll. “We should obviously make sure there is some fraud protection,” Mnuchin said.

The program itself is not slated to last that much longer: It was meant to continue only until the end of June, but with billions of dollars still in the fund, Congress earlier this month extended its life until Aug. 8, just under three weeks from now.