Congress Approves New Small Business Relief Program Funding

The U.S. Congress has approved $381 billion in new funding for two critical small business coronavirus relief programs.

The U.S. House acted April 23 on a $484 billion package that includes an additional $321 billion for the Paycheck Protection Program and $60 billion for the Economic Injury Disaster Loan fund.

The Senate approved the measure two days earlier, following more than a week of negotiations between Congressional leaders and the Trump administration.

Lenders can begin processing new PPP loans April 27. The SBA will accept new EIDL applications at the same time.

Approved lenders can begin processing new PPP loans from 10:30 am Monday, April 27. The SBA will accept new EIDL applications at the same time.

Funding for the PPP, the federal government’s main small business relief program ran out April 16, less than two weeks after the $349 billion fund was launched.

The U.S. Small Business Administration suspended EIDL applications earlier in the week after funding for that program was exhausted.

Loan Approvals

A total of $4.15 billion in PPP loans were approved for 18,435 Connecticut small businesses before applications were suspended.

Nationally, 1.7 million small businesses were approved for PPP funding, with 74% of those for loans of $150,000 or less.

About 700 Connecticut small businesses received EIDL loans totalling $142.4 million.

🎙️New #BizCast: @ThomastonBank has advice for #smallbiz applying for #PPP, which opens Monday morning at 10:30am. https://t.co/oq8aDNNQNW pic.twitter.com/PENl2ybQXc

— Shannon Burnham (@shannoneking53) April 24, 2020

In addition, 9,549 Connecticut employers were approved for a total of $41.5 million in EIDL emergency advances.

The latest funding bill made a specific carve out of $60 billion for community businesses and small lenders to address accessibility concerns for smaller employers.

The bill also allocates $75 billion to hospitals and $25 billion for enhanced testing.