'This is ridiculous': Small-business owners can't get loans as shutdown enters Day 20. [View all]

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David Fahrenthold Retweeted

WaPo’s ace financial team ⁦@byHeatherLong⁩ ⁦@davidjlynch⁩ ⁦@renaemerle⁩ on how a lengthy gov #shutdown is already hurting small businesses & farms that can’t get loans, exporters that can’t ship products overseas, & other econ impacts

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Business
‘This is ridiculous’: Small-business owners can’t get loans as shutdown enters Day 20.

By Heather Long, David J. Lynch and Renae Merle
January 10 at 6:00 AM

Brooks Troxler is a small-business owner in North Carolina who’s known as “Trox the tech” for his ability to fix any computer problem. Business is growing and he had big plans to start 2019 by cutting the ribbon on a new property, but the partial U.S. government shutdown means he can’t finish the purchase.

The Small Business Administration stopped processing new loans on Dec. 22. Troxler and thousands of others can’t get their SBA loans approved, meaning they can’t get money they need to start or expand their companies.

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If Troxler doesn’t get the $550,000 loan soon, he won’t be able to buy his dream commercial property — an acre on a heavily traveled road — a major upgrade from the small space he leases now. He’ll also lose all the money he has sunk into appraisals, paperwork, fees and environmental assessments in the past few months to make this deal happen.

“I’m praying this shutdown ends quickly,” said Troxler, who employs seven people at Trox Tech in Charlotte. “We were 99 percent done. We were at the finish line, and now it’s like they pulled me back.”
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Heather Long is an economics correspondent. Before joining The Washington Post, she was a senior economics reporter at CNN and a columnist and deputy editor at the Patriot-News in Harrisburg, Pa. She also worked at an investment firm in London. Follow https://twitter.com/byHeatherLong

David J. Lynch is a staff writer on the financial desk who joined The Washington Post in November 2017 after working for the Financial Times, Bloomberg News and USA Today. Follow https://twitter.com/davidjlynch

Renae Merle covers white-collar crime and Wall Street for The Washington Post. She has also worked for the Wall Street Journal and the Associated Press. Follow https://twitter.com/renaemerle