At the end of last week, U.S. Rep. Michael Waltz, R-Fla., pointed to numbers from the U.S. Treasury Department and the Small Business Administration (SBA) which show the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) helped job retention in Northeast Florida.
Waltz cited the figures which showed the PPP helped save almost 83,000 jobs in his district.
“This data makes it clear that the Paycheck Protection Program has had a positive impact on our community,” Waltz said on Friday. “The entire purpose of this program was to save jobs which would have otherwise been lost due to the COVID-19 pandemic – and in Central Florida, that’s exactly what it did. This is great news for small businesses in our area – and I’m looking forward to seeing them keep their doors open and keep employees on payroll.”
More than 11,000 businesses in Waltz’s district received more than $616 million in PPP loans with the majority of those loans–more than 10,000–receiving less than 150,000.
The PPP was created at the end of March when the White House and Congress agreed to the $2.3 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act.
Reach Kevin Derby at kevin.derby@floridadaily.com.
