The U.S. Small Business Administration is urging Iowa small business owners who need access to additional operating capital due to the COVID pandemic to consider applying for a low-interest loan through the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program.

“Now that the Paycheck Protection Program has closed out, many businesses are asking, ‘What else is out there that’s available?’” said Veronica Pugin, senior adviser to the SBA’s Office of Capital Access. In a phone interview with the Business Record, Pugin said the agency has recently invested in additional personnel to assist with applications and to process loans.

“The demand that the agency received was unprecedented,” she said. “So it’s important to share that the agency has increased capacity to review all applications.”

Although the program experienced significant backlogs earlier this summer, the SBA has increased its EIDL processing capacity to 37,000 applications daily, a 22-fold increase, Pugin said. It now claims a turnaround time of about two weeks on most EIDL applications, provided the business owner responds promptly to additional information requests.

As of mid-August, Iowa small businesses have received approval for 18,146 Economic Injury Disaster Loans totaling more than $1.39 billion.

The program also has a supplemental grant program available to small businesses with fewer than 300 employees that are located within census tract low-income communities and can demonstrate a more than 30% economic loss due to the pandemic. This is referred to by the SBA as the Targeted EIDL Advance and Supplemental Targeted Advance.

Asked how much funding remains for loans and advances, Pugin said Tuesday the amount is in flux due to legislative negotiations in Washington, D.C. “But the negotiations are encouraging, and we’re optimistic that there will be funding available until the end of the year,” she said. The program would be part of funding allocated for small businesses in the $3.5 trillion budget bill. On Tuesday the U.S. House voted along party lines to adopt a rule that allows Democrats to immediately begin work on details of the massive budget legislation.

A recent article published by the National Federation of Independent Business provides more information about the EIDL program.