With the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) for small businesses now out of money, anger is mounting over news that major corporations have availed themselves of loans through the program, as Congress continues debating what the next round of funding should include.

Under the CARES Act, the PPP loans were meant for mom-and-pop sorts of businesses, yet Bloomberg has reported that many large corporations—such as restaurant chains, mining and manufacturing firms, and cruise companies—took funding too. Smaller businesses, such as hair salons and local restaurants, meanwhile, were left struggling as they too sought out emergency loans. While the government reported that 74 percent of loans issued were for under $150,000, Bloomberg said the data also showed that 2 percent of the firms approved for loans accounted for almost 30 percent of the funding. Meanwhile, 9 percent of companies got loans of at least $5 million.

Large companies were able to take advantage of these loans due to rules generally saying that the requirement that loan recipients have 500 or fewer employees was on a per-location basis. Thus, companies such as Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, which has multiple locations, were able to get $20 million in loans: In the case of this restaurant chain, it was able to get $10 million for each of its two subsidiaries. The 500-employee rule was also the reason why a number of hedge funds were reported to have successfully applied for loans, since the whole point of their business model is to have few employees so that managers can keep most of the profits themselves. 

Meanwhile, CNN Business noted that many small local firms such as dentist's offices and bakeries have been unable to get loans in time and were forced to either lay off workers or shut down entirely, some owners even bearing rejection letters from the SBA. This has led to widespread anger against companies that are seen as taking money meant for other businesses.

Shake Shack was one such company, as it was revealed to have received a $10 million loan through the program. This was met with such widespread public shaming that the burger chain announced on Monday that it was giving the entire loan back to the government for other businesses to use, blaming its actions on confusion around the program itself, said Bloomberg. Shake Shack founder Danny Meyer and CEO Randy Garutti issued a statement on Twitter and LinkedIn saying that the PPP program “came with no user manual and it was extremely confusing.”

All of this activity on the part of larger businesses is despite the fact that the Federal Reserve had set aside money specifically for companies like them. The central bank's Main Street Lending Facility extends some $600 billion worth of loans to U.S. businesses with up to 10,000 employees or up to $2.5 billion in 2019 annual revenues, worth between $1 million and $25 million. It is unknown why companies like Shake Shack decided to use the PPP loans when they could have gotten even more money through the Main Street Lending Facility, which was specifically set up for these kinds of companies.

As the public fully digests the implications of the first round of funding, the New York Times is reporting that Congress and the administration are close to an agreement on the second round. While initially Republicans wanted just $250 billion to refill the PPP's coffers, negotiations with Democrats have produced a deal that would give the program $300 billion in extra funds, plus $50 billion more for the Small Business Administration's disaster relief fund, $75 billion in aid to hospitals, and $25 billion for testing. The administration estimated that a vote could come on this package as early as Monday or Tuesday. Left out of this proposed package was increased aid to state and local governments as well as an expansion to food aid programs, both initial demands that Democrats had brought to negotiations.