The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) Loan Money Is Running Out

Latest developments as of April 15:

8:50 p.m. EST: U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin and Small Business Administration (SBA) Administrator Jovita Carranza issued a joint statement warning that funds for the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) is depleting. 

Both administrators said the SBA will no longer be able to approve the forgivable loans for small businesses once the initial $349 billion funding runs out. As of today at 5 p.m. EST, only $41 billion was left that hadn’t already been approved.

“The SBA has processed more than 14 years’ worth of loans in less than 14 days.  The Paycheck Protection Program is saving millions of jobs and helping America’s small businesses make it through this challenging time,” the statement says. “By law, the SBA will not be able to issue new loan approvals once the programs experience a lapse in appropriations.”

The statement doesn’t provide a timeline for when the Treasury Department or the SBA expects the funds to dry up.

“We urge Congress to appropriate additional funds for the Paycheck Protection Program—a critical and overwhelmingly bipartisan program—at which point we will once again be able to process loan applications, issue loan numbers, and protect millions more paychecks,” the statement reads.

5:21 p.m. EST: The Small Business Administration has approved $308 billion in Paycheck Protection Program loans as of April 15. As of 5 p.m. EST, 1,422,000 PPP loans have been approved and more than 4,900 lenders are participating.

The new approved amounts as of April 15 heighten concerns that the funding for PPP is running out. Yesterday, the SBA stated that the total approved amount of loans under the program was $268 billion out of the earmarked $349 billion available. That means $40 billion in loans were approved in 24 hours.

Many small businesses around the country are still trying to get applications approved. President Donald J. Trump and Senate Republicans stated the need for additional legislation to increase the fund by another $250 billion. That measure was blocked, however, by Democrats in Congress who want to secure additional funds for hospitals and local governments as part of the stimulus.

We will be updating this story as it develops.

PPP Business funding developments from April 14:

The Small Business Administration, which oversees the PPP with the U.S. Treasury Department, said that $268 billion in forgivable loans had been approved as of April 14. A total of 1,680,000 loans have been approved under the program and originated by 4,700 lenders nationwide, according to an SBA spokesperson.

The SBA did not have exact figures for how much in the approved loans had actually been disbursed to businesses as of April 14.

The PPP was included as part of the CARES Act by Congress in an attempt to provide much needed financial relief to small businesses facing shutdowns and steep drops in revenue due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The intention of the program was to provide roughly 2 months of funds to businesses to cover payroll, and mitigate the numbers of newly unemployed workers.

Read the full story here.