{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://escobar.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=822", "Congresswoman Escobar Announces Over $490 Million in SBA Loans to El Paso Small Businesses", "2021-12-29", "2021", "2021-12", "Democrat", "House", "TX", "Veronica Escobar", "E000299", "escobar.house.gov", "escobar", "https://escobar.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx?DocumentTypeID=27", "scraper", "Congresswoman Escobar Visiting El Paso Small Business, Chuco Relic\n\nToday, Congresswoman Veronica Escobar (TX-16) announced that the El Paso District Office of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) approved over 9,799 loans totaling $490,047,441 in funding to local small businesses since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result of these loans, countless small-business owners were able to keep their businesses open and create over 650 new jobs for the community.\n\nSmall businesses have been hit hard throughout the last two years. In 2020, businesses with less than 500 employees reported a record net job loss against larger businesses \u2013 though they also benefitted from programs such as the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), with 96% of loans going to businesses with fewer than 20 employees.\n\nWhile many of the loans were started by Congress in the bipartisan CARES Act, which Congresswoman Escobar voted for in March 2020, this help would not have been possible without the American Rescue Plan Act. Passed by Congresswoman Escobar and her Democratic colleagues and signed into law by President Joe Biden in March 2021, the American Rescue Plan Act provided an additional $7.25 billion for PPP and $15 billion for Targeted Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) advance payments.\n\n\u201cEl Paso small businesses make up the backbone of our local economy and thanks to the American Rescue Plan, Congress has enabled the SBA to uplift our community\u2019s beloved mom-and-pop businesses,\u201d Congresswoman Escobar. \u201cI am proud of the work the SBA El Paso District Office has done to deliver a record number of loans while also scaling up to meet the immense demand for COVID-19 related economic relief. I look forward to continue working together to build El Paso\u2019s small business economy back better and ensure everyone is included in our economic recovery.\u201d\n\nThe total FY 2021 loan totals approved by the SBA El Paso District Office, which covers 10 counties including El Paso County and the West Texas counties of Brewster, Culberson, Hudspeth, Jeff Davis, Loving, Pecos, Presidio, Reeves, and Terrell, are:\n\nTotal Guaranteed Loans: 104 loans approved for $39,095,283\n\nPPP Loans: 9,427 loans approved for $396,079,597\n\nEIDL Loans: 259 loans for $64,322,561\n\n504 Loans: 9 loans for $8,775,000", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:37:48Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://escobar.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=822"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.6533578746020794, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}