The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) has approved certain cities and states whose businesses have been negatively impacted by COVID-19 to be approved for the Economic Injury Disaster Loan.

On March 17th, Governor Greg Abbot requested emergency designation from the SBA Economic Injury Disaster Declaration to give access to the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program for the entire state of Texas. Abbot is estimating approval by next week. Small businesses can apply at: https://disasterloan.sba.gov/ela/.

The SBA has announced that the website is experiencing high volumes of traffic and slows down from 7:00 am to 7:00 pm. The best time to apply on the website is after peak hours from 7:00 pm to 7:00 am. It has been reported that some users are experiencing issues with Google Chrome. The SBA recommends using an alternate web browser like Microsoft Edge or Internet Explorer.