SBA, Treasury Agree to Disclose PPP Loan Recipient Info

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. (Photo: AP)

Bowing to pressure from the bipartisan leaders of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, the Small Business Administration and the Treasury Department agreed late Friday to make public additional information regarding the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).

SBA said it will disclose the business names, addresses, industry classification codes, zip codes, business type, demographic data, non-profit information, details on jobs supported by the firms and loan amount ranges, as follows:

$150,000-$350,000
$350,000-$1 million
$1-2 million
$2-5 million
$5-10 million

"These categories account for nearly 75% of the loan dollars approved," SBA said.

For loans below $150,000, totals will be released, aggregated by zip code, by industry, by business type, and by various demographic categories.

For PPP data disclosed to date, including total dollars approved, loan sizes, lender sizes and types, loans approved by state, top lenders, loans by industry sector, and funds remaining as listed here.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement that SBA and Treasury are "striking the appropriate balance of providing public transparency, while protecting the payroll and personal income information of small businesses, sole proprietors, and independent contractors."

SBA Administrator Jovita Carranza added in the statement that "we value transparency and our fiduciary responsibility to ensure American taxpayer funds are used appropriately. This responsibility goes together with the steps we are now taking to provide needed public information in step with protecting entrepreneurs' personally identifiable information associated with their business loan," Carranza explained.

Small businesses, he added, "are the driving force of our economic stability and are leading the way to allow our nation to rebound safely."

The development comes one day after Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, chairman of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Tim Scott, R-South Carolina, introduced a bill to expand PPP eligibility to local chambers of commerce, and Destination Marketing Organizations, which promote tourism.

'Public Pressure'

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-New York, said Friday in a statement that Treasury "finally gave in to public pressure from Democrats because their position of hiding which businesses have received PPP loans was untenable.

"This reversal is a good start and will help us determine if taxpayer money went where Congress intended — to the truly small and unbanked small business," Schumer explained. "Democrats will continue to push for maximum transparency from the Trump administration, especially when it comes to CARES Act funds."

House Financial Services Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters, D-California, along with House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, D-Massachusetts, and Rep. Nydia M. Velázquez, D-New York, chairwoman of the House Committee on Small Business, also told Mnuchin and Carranza in a June 13 letter that its "their duty to be transparent and accountable stewards of the American taxpayers' money."

The three lawmakers also expressed their dismay that the Trump Administration would not reveal the names of companies that received loans under the PPP.

"As you know, Congress authorized the PPP in order to provide critically-needed financial assistance to small businesses struggling to stay afloat during the coronavirus pandemic," the lawmakers wrote.

"However, shortly after enactment of the CARES Act, there were reports that larger, profitable businesses were receiving PPP loans while many small, needy businesses could not secure a loan," they said. "Many Americans were rightfully concerned about this troubling news."