The federal government hit the $349 billion lending limit on the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), leaving many entrepreneurs across the country without much-needed assistance to pay their employees during the COVID-19 crisis.

The SBA reported on April 14, 2020, that there were more than 1.6 million applications for PPP loans totaling over $339 billion financed across 4,900 lending institutions. Officials said the following day that the SBA processed more than 14 years’ worth of loans in less than 14 days. On April 16, 2020, it was reported that the appropriated funds for both the PPP and Disaster Loans programs had run dry.

The SBA currently states it will not accept any additional Disaster Loan applications due to the lack of appropriations. It will continue to process the applications it currently has in the queue on a first come, first served basis.

There is discussion that Congress will act to refill the coffers of these programs, but nothing has been decided yet.

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