![]() House Democrats wrote, “Contrary to Secretary Mnuchin’s recent testimony, there is nothing ‘proprietary’ or ‘confidential’ about a business receiving millions of dollars appropriated by Congress, and taxpayers deserve to know how their money is being spent.” A spokesperson for the SBA did not immediately respond to Fortune‘s request for comment.Īdditionally, government watchdogs like the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee (PRAC), an independent panel created to oversee the CARES Act, similarly warn of limited access. Meanwhile, on Monday, seven House Democrats, spearheaded by House Majority Whip James Clyburn, sent letters to the SBA and Treasury (as well as big banks involved in lending for the program) to demand transparency and names of recipients. The SBA has provided breakdowns of the average size of loans, industries that received loans, and other broad data, but hasn’t provided individual names and loan amounts, even though the administration has said the data would eventually be released. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) for the SBA to publish further information on the loans. So far, there have been several attempts to procure the names and loan amounts from the administration, including a bill that failed to pass the House and requests from senators including Sen. A spokesperson for the SBA did not immediately respond to Fortune‘s request for comment. Chuck Young, a spokesperson for the GAO, told Fortune Wednesday the office has not been given a timeline for when it would receive the information from the SBA. In a letter Wednesday, five Democratic committee and subcommittee chairs called the SBA’s failure to comply with the GAO’s requests for interviews, documents, and data a “violation of the law” and asked the SBA administrator Jovita Carranza to “immediately comply” with the GAO’s requests. The Government Accountability Office (GAO), an independent oversight arm tasked with writing a report on how the program has doled out funds by the end of June, has thus far been unable to obtain information from the SBA about loan names and amounts. ![]() Now members of Congress and accountability agencies are amping up the pressure on the SBA and Treasury to release names, alleging the administration has blocked government oversight agencies from fulfilling their duties overseeing the SBA and Treasury’s $670 billion taxpayer program. Last week, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin declared in testimony to Congress that names and amounts of borrowers would not be provided, saying they are “proprietary” and in some cases “confidential,” sparking backlash on Capitol Hill. Although Congress has since taken many steps to amend the program-from new rules of who was eligible to receive loans to directing funds to smaller businesses in rural areas-a big question still hasn’t been answered: Who exactly got the loans? A “violation of the law” After just 13 days, funds for the first round of the program (then, some $350 billion) ran out, and the public later came to find out that many of the loans went to large, publicly traded companies and chains. ![]()
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