The New York Times says Small-Business Relief Effort 'a Mess'

The Hill says Small businesses still struggling for loans even as $100B is approved

The Trump administration has approved roughly $100 billion of the $350 billion allocated for emergency loans to small businesses devastated by the coronavirus outbreak, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told lawmakers on Wednesday.

But the figure has done little to ease the rising fears of smaller businesses still struggling to access the funds — and growing ever-more concerned that the program is tilted in favor of larger enterprises with existing relationships with banks.

The concern from small businesses is simple: they fear the money will run out before they can access it.

"A lot of money [is] first-come, first-serve, and many unbanked people who are underbanked or unserved ... don't have banking relationships, sophisticated in a way that others do," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Wednesday in an interview with NPR.