Emilie Munson is reporting for the Times Union approximately 2 percent of New York small businesses have been approved for loans through the Small Business Administration's new Paycheck Protection Program. The program launched April 3, and was created to help companies hurt by the coronavirus shutdown. The program has been overwhelmed by demand and plagued with problems, and federal officials said this week funding for the program will likely run out on Thursday or Friday. In New York, just under 41,000 PPP loans were approved for small businesses, totaling more than $11.7 billion as of April 13. SBA said it did not have numbers on how many small businesses have applied for the program. The newly released data is the first time the SBA has provided information specific to New York about the PPP loans. Nationally, 1.035 million loans had been approved as of April 13. The administration requested an additional $250 billion for the program last week. Senate Democrats want $125 billion for the PPP loan program, along with $60 billion for community-based lenders for small businesses and $65 billion for disaster loans and grants for small businesses. They also want to make tweaks to the program including increasing the amount of the loan that can be forgiven and ensuring by law that farmers can access it. Democrats have also included $100 billion in new aid for hospitals and health providers, $150 billion in new funding for states and tribes, and an increase in food stamp benefits. Read the full story in the Times Union.