April 16, 2020—Federal officials are asking Congress to allocate more money for small businesses as the existing lifeline programs quickly exhausted their resources.
The Associated Press reports that the Paycheck Protection Program is on hold after reaching its $349 billion lending limit. Thousands of small businesses are still awaiting approval.
The loan allocations were depleted in just 14 days.
In a statement released on Wednesday, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Small Business Administration administrator Jovita Carranza urged Congress to allow more money for the relief programs.
“By law, the SBA will not be able to issue new loan approvals once the programs experience a lapse in appropriations,” the statement read in part. “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.”
Image: U.S. State Department photo
