Six months after launching the biggest small business aid initiative in history, Congress is working to extend the Paycheck Protection Program — but with new measures to ensure that the most vulnerable of businesses have a better shot at funding, the <em>Wall Street Journal</em> reported. The PPP initiative delivered more than 5 million loans totaling $525 billion, but was dogged by complaints from many borrowers and small-business groups that it favored sophisticated companies with strong ties to lenders, which issued the loans, over those with weaker financial roots, including many in minority neighborhoods. That disparity played out in how fast companies were able to get loans in the first critical weeks following the program’s April 3 launch, according to a <em>Wall Street Journal</em> review of lending data in the nation’s capital.
