$130 billion in small-business aid still hasn’t been used

In April, when the federal government offered $349 billion in loans to small businesses reeling from government shutdown orders in the pandemic, the funding ran out in just 13 days, prompting Congress to swiftly approve a second round of $310 billion.

Small businesses have since grown more wary of taking the money.

As of Tuesday, more than $130 billion was left in the fund, known as the Paycheck Protection Program. Even more striking was the fact that on many days last month, more money was being returned than borrowed, according to data from the Small Business Administration, which is overseeing the program — highlighting its messy execution and confusing rules that deterred some small businesses from using the money.

Thousands of companies that got loans have sent the money back, according to lenders. For some owners, the program’s terms were too restrictive; for others, the criteria for loan forgiveness was too murky. Some public companies that received these loans returned them after a public outcry; and in the initial rush, some borrowers accidentally got duplicate loans that they, too, returned.

A total of around $12 billion was returned, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said at a Senate hearing Wednesday. The amount of loans outstanding under the program dropped to $510.2 billion at the end of May, from $513.3 billion in the middle of the month, according to SBA data.

By Tuesday, the amount of approved loans had inched back up to $511.4 billion — indicating that changes Congress made to the program last week to make it less restrictive could be pushing more money out the door.

But obstacles remain. The program’s chaotic execution has “chilled the willingness of many small businesses to even apply for loans during the second round of PPP funding and has caused many businesses to return disbursed loans out of fear of doing something wrong,” Tony Wilkinson, chief executive of the National Association of Government Guaranteed Lenders, a trade group, said last week

at a hearing of the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, an oversight group.

The turn of events is notable for a signature program of Congress’ $2.2 trillion coronavirus relief package, which only a couple of months ago was caught in an intense borrowing frenzy by desperate business owners. After all, small businesses are still in distress. Even as states begin to reopen, millions of stores around the country remain shuttered and could go out of business.

On June 3, Congress moved to loosen the program’s rules and give businesses more flexibility in spending their aid, and President Donald Trump signed the bill Friday. The change was widely praised and will help many borrowers.

The amended rules could help the remaining $130 billion move faster. “My expectation is that we will definitely see businesses that were on the sidelines now take it,” Mnuchin said.

But having the terms of their loans revised on the fly yet again — which has happened repeatedly since the program began in April — is a nightmare for borrowers as they struggle to salvage their companies.

“I cried the day I sent it back,” said Shelly Ross, owner of Tales of the Kitty, a catsitting company in San Francisco, who recently gave up on using her $75,000 loan and returned the money. “I thought this would save my business, but I was worried about being financially ruined if it wasn’t forgiven.”

Ross started Tales of the Kitty in 2003 and expanded it into a thriving venture with 14 employees and a packed schedule of 10,000 client visits a year. In

March, her sales plummeted because of the pandemic, forcing her to lay people off.

To have their loans fully forgiven, companies must keep the same number of employees on the payroll as before the pandemic, at the same wages. That’s a hard bar to clear for business owners whose ventures remain shut. Ross expects her sales to stay slow at least through Thanksgiving.

More than 4.5 million companies, from solo gig workers and small restaurateurs to retailers and professional services firms with fewer than 500 employees, got help. For most, it was a lifeline.