Trump administration releases PPP loan data

The Trump Administration on Monday released data about recipients of Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans, which is of interest to lawmakers as they conduct oversight of the small-business loan program.

The Small Business Administration (SBA), in consultation with the Treasury Department, released data about loans made under the PPP of at least $150,000 that includes the names, addresses and business types of businesses and nonprofits that received loans. For each of these loans, the SBA gave a range for the dollar amount of the loans.

The SBA also released data on loans of under $150,000 that does not include the names and addresses of recipients.

Treasury and the SBA announced last month that they planned to make this loan information public, after Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin had previously suggested during a hearing that information about loan recipients wouldn’t be released. Lawmakers have been interested in conducting oversight of the program to ensure it is working as intended.

“Today’s release of loan data strikes the appropriate balance of providing the American people with transparency, while protecting sensitive payroll and personal income information of small businesses, sole proprietors, and independent contractors,” Mnuchin said in a news release.

Senate Minority Leaders Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said that this is a “good start” but called for “more transparency.”

“While it’s a good start that the administration has finally started to make public some information about which small businesses received PPP loans, it’s a shame it took this long and so much pressure from Democrats for it to happen,” Schumer said in a statement.

“Make no mistake: more transparency is still needed to ensure that these taxpayer dollars went where Congress intended — to the truly small and underbanked small businesses. Democrats will continue to push for maximum transparency from the Trump administration, especially when it comes to CARES Act funds,” he added.

Several House Democratic committee chairs have called on Treasury and the SBA to release the names of all PPP recipients and the dollar amount of all loans. Mnuchin told House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal (D-Mass.) last month that Congress would get access to all of the loan data, provided that Congress keep nonpublic personal information confidential.

The SBA said Monday that through June 30, about 4.9 million loans have been approved, totaling about $521 billion. The average loan size is about $107,000. Loans of over $150,000 make up almost 73 percent of the dollar amount of all loans, but only 13.5 percent of the loans.

The PPP was created by coronavirus relief legislation Congress passed in March and is aimed at helping to keep employers and workers afloat during the pandemic. Under the PPP, small businesses and nonprofits can receive loans that are forgivable if the funds are used for payroll, mortgage interest, rent and utilities and the recipient maintains employee and compensation levels.

The PPP is supporting about 51.1 million jobs, which amounts to as much as 84 percent of all employees of small businesses, the SBA said. The agency said that 27 percent of the funds are going to low- and moderate-income census tracts, which is proportionate to the share of the population in those areas.

“The PPP is an indisputable success for small businesses, especially to the communities in which these employers serve as the main job creators,” SBA Administrator Jovita Carranza said. “In three months, this Administration was able to act quickly to get funding into the hands of those who faced enormous obstacles as a result of the pandemic.”

–Updated at 1:23 p.m.