A bipartisan bill targeting America’s payment infrastructure is gaining momentum, and new data on small business cash-flow gaps shows exactly why it matters. For many small business owners, getting paid is only half the battle. The other half is waiting for the money to arrive.

Payment Delays and Fees

Nearly 3 in 5 small business owners (59%) paid an extra fee for instant transfer or fast deposit in the past year, according to the QuickBooks 2026 Late Payments Report. For 15%, it’s routine. They’re paying, repeatedly, just to access money they’ve already earned.

The current U.S. payments system is built on networks, called payment rails, that route transactions and determine when money actually arrives. The Federal Reserve operates three of these networks: FedACH, Fedwire, and FedNow. Currently, only banks and credit unions can connect to those Federal Reserve networks directly.

The PACE Act

The PACE Act would create a supervised path for qualifying nonbank providers to connect to those Federal Reserve networks directly. To qualify, a provider would need to come under OCC (Office of the Comptroller of the Currency) oversight, the same federal regulator that supervises national banks.

Representatives Sam Liccardo (D-CA) and Young Kim (R-CA) introduced the Payments Access and Consumer Efficiency Act, or the PACE Act, a bipartisan bill designed to speed up the U.S. payment system and lower the cost of moving money by modernizing how payment companies access federal payment rails.

The Financial Technology Association applauded the bill’s introduction, noting that “American consumers and small businesses shouldn’t have to wait days for a direct deposit to clear or a vendor check to arrive in the mail.”

Original reporting: KTVZ (Central Oregon) — read the source article.