Firms Rush To Apply for New Round of Paycheck Protection Program Loans

摘要

Small businesses,including many in construction and engineering, have quickly lined up to apply for a second round of Paycheck Protection Program loans after Congress approved $310 billion to restart the popular program. Congress had provided $349 billion in late March for PPP, but demand was so strong that all of that was exhausted within just 13 days. Potential borrowers are worried that the new PPP money isn't likely to last long either. The Small Business Administration's lending window opened for PPP's round two on April 27. By 1 p.m. the next day, SBA reported that it had approved nearly 476,000 loans totaling $52.2 billion in what it termed "PPP2." For borrowers still in the queue, the math was scary. At that rate, the round two funds would be gone in less than a week.