Small Business Administration Will Soon Exhaust Disaster Loan Funds

The agency has less than $100 million for new loans, according to officials, while Hurricane Milton is headed toward Florida and after Hurricane Helene devastated much of the Southeast.

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Search-and-rescue workers in Swannanoa, N.C., over the weekend. Several Southeastern states are still dealing with the effects of Hurricane Helene.

Small Business Administration officials warned on Tuesday that the agency would “very soon” exhaust its funding for new disaster loans for homeowners and businesses in the wake of Hurricane Helene.

The agency has less than $100 million for new disaster loans, according to the officials, and will continue to process incoming loan applications after the money runs out, but Congress will have to approve additional funding for it to make new loan offers and cut checks.

The issue comes at a precarious time for the country. Federal and state officials are preparing for Hurricane Milton, the strongest storm in the Gulf of Mexico since 2005, to make landfall in Florida late Wednesday or early Thursday. Officials are also still responding to the devastating impact of Hurricane Helene in several Southeastern states.

“Our ability to fully support all of our disasters is going to be diminished, and that includes Milton,” Isabel Guzman, the agency’s administrator, said in an interview on Tuesday evening.

It is unclear whether lawmakers will approve additional funding before the agency exhausts the money, however. Congress is not set to reconvene until Nov. 12.

Ms. Guzman said the money would “definitely run out” before then, adding that she hoped lawmakers would return to Washington sooner to replenish the agency’s disaster loan funds. The lack of funds could “delay a family’s ability to rebuild their home and get back in safely,” or a business owner’s ability to “quickly clean up” and “get their employees back to work,” she said.

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