Tampa Republic

The Small Business Association Loans program, promised by the federal government, has denied 48 percent of applicants, leaving millions of business owners without money, the Tampa Bay Times reported.

James Rivera, an associated administrator with the Small Business Administration, said that the reasons for the denial were not always clearly stated, according to the Times.

Under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act, the SBA was supposed to provide $10,000 to small business loan applicants during application processing. However, as Rivera told a House Small Business Committee recently, applicants did not receive the funds, instead often receiving $1,000 per employee because the agency wanted to help as many businesses as possible.

“Had we used $10,000 we would have been out of funds immediately,” Rivera said.

The SBA announced in May that it would give loans of up to $2 million, but then limited businesses to a maximum of $150,000 and averaged about $61,000 for the loans, the Times said.

U.S. Rep. Ross Spano (R-Dover) told the news agency that Tampa Bay area businesses are extremely frustrated.

"In my district, I got literally hundreds of calls with respect to the frustration that business owners were having getting information,” Spano told the news agency.

Rivera told the committee that the SBA evaluated applications based on business owners' credit scores and that if they wanted to be evaluated on other metrics, it would take several more weeks. He noted that the agency had approximately $230 billion left, but that the funds wouldn't last more than a few more months at the current rate of disbursal.

Rivera told the committee that the agency had approved more than 2 million 30-year loans with a 4 percent interest, totaling $127 billion, the Times said.