KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — When the Small Business Administration opened applications for its Paycheck Protection Program, Katy Richardson was ready.
"We were in the first wave of applications because First Horizon has been incredibly helpful working with us to navigate through this whole process," said Richardson, who owns the Neighborhood Barre franchise and its two Knoxville studios.
Since then, Richardson has redone her application five times. She stayed up until midnight on Wednesday to submit her final version that adhered to the newest guidelines.
On Thursday morning, the Small Business Administration announced it had already exhausted the $350 billion Congress had allocated for the emergency funding.
"I'm just waiting for it to hopefully be replenished," Richardson said. "I'm in line. All of my stuff is together."
Stacey Handel, who owns Garde Bien Spa Salon in Farragut, is also stuck waiting on Washington.
"I was able to finally get in there and load documentation just in the nick of time to find out there's no money left over," Handel told 10News. "It's very frustrating and very upsetting to a lot of the people who are just sitting there waiting on some help."
Handel said she is thankful that her business margins were doing well before she had to close down. Still, she's ready to get back to work.
"We're willing to almost do anything to help make sure we don't infect people and cause illnesses and so forth," Handel said. "Those people in Congress that have a job, I know they couldn't possibly understand what it feels like to not have any money coming in when you've got bills mounting up."
Congressman Tim Burchett (R-TN02) said he knew the original amount allocated was not enough. He told 10News he's hoping Congress can reach a compromise soon.
"We had no idea how long this would go... but it was an estimate and of course, it wasn't enough," Rep. Burchett said. "We need to get off our butts and get back to Washington. This is ridiculous."