Greater Washington’s small businesses were approved for a collective $11 billion in Paycheck Protection Program loans over the course of the Small Business Administration’s forgivable lending program.
That accounts for about 2.1% of all PPP loans made under the program, which ultimately doled out $522 billion to about 5.2 million businesses between April and August. Nearly 84,000 businesses across D.C., Northern Virginia and suburban Maryland were approved for loans, according to a Washington Business Journal review of a new data set disclosed by the SBA Dec. 1.
That disclosure, which includes company names and specific amounts for all 5.2 million PPP loans the SBA approved during the tenure of the program, comes in response to a lawsuit filed in May by several news organizations, including the Washington Business Journal’s parent, American City Business Journals. The SBA had previously only released detailed information for approved loans above $150,000, but with dollar ranges rather than specific loan amounts. It also had redacted business names for smaller amounts approved through June 30.
