Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Wednesday he will ask Congress for additional funding for small business loans if a $350 billion loan pool dries up, CNBC reported Wednesday.
The $350 billion Paycheck Protection Program is part of the $2 trillion stimulus package President Donald Trump signed into law Friday to mitigate the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic. It seeks to help small businesses pay salary, wage and benefits of employees.
“One of the things I’ve heard is this small business program is going to be so popular that we’re going to run out of our $350 billion,” Mnuchin told CNBC’s Squawk on the Street program. “If that’s the case, I can assure you that will be top of the list for me to go back to Congress on. It has huge bipartisan support and we want to protect small business.”
The Small Business Administration said lenders may begin processing loan applications as early as Friday.