List of Small Business PPP Loan Recipients Released

The Treasury Department and the Small Business Administration revealed the names of many of the small businesses they lent money to on Monday under a program aimed at mitigating the economic damage of the coronavirus pandemic.

The disclosure comes amid Democrats’ demands for greater transparency around the Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP, funds established as part of the $ 2 trillion CARES Act, which President Donald Trump signed this spring.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin sparked a protest from Democrats when he originally hinted that the Trump administration would not reveal the names of the participants. The Treasury and SBA then changed course, saying they would disclose names and other details about companies that took PPP loans of $ 150,000 or more.

Those loans represent almost three-quarters of the total approved loan dollars, but a much smaller proportion of the number of actual loans. According to the SBA, about 87% of the loans were for less than $ 150,000.

The SBA released other details about the program on Monday, including:

• It has approved 4.9 million loans totaling more than $ 521 billion.
• The companies said the financing supported more than 51 million jobs. But companies reported the total when they applied for loans, and it’s unclear how many of those employees remained on the payroll.
• The program has approximately $ 132 billion in remaining funds.
• The average loan is $ 107,000.
• Applicants in California received the most money overall with $ 68.2 billion, followed by Texas with $ 41.1 billion and New York with $ 38.3 billion.
• Businesses in economically distressed areas designated by the SBA got almost 23% of the loan money, while businesses in rural areas received about 15% of the funds.
• The industries that obtained the majority of the net APP dollars were health and social care, professional, scientific and technical services, construction and manufacturing.

The goal of the PPP is to offer forgivable loans to smaller companies, helping them stay afloat and employees to keep their jobs as the coronavirus halts the American economy.

Companies that keep most of their payroll during the loan period can convert those funds into a grant.

While the goal of the program was to help sick companies with fewer than 500 employees, its effectiveness has not been clear. The largest and most public companies initially took advantage of freely written language to take advantage of the funds themselves.

Ruth’s Hospitality Group, owner of Ruth’s Chris Steak House, AutoNation and ShakeShack are among those who obtained PPP loans. So did the Los Angeles Lakers.

They, and many other companies, finally returned the money after the public protest. Overall, more than $ 30 billion in loans were repaid, senior administration officials who declined to be named said Monday.

Lawmakers have also lobbied to find out if politicians or their families have taken funds from the program. Representative Vicky Hartzler, R-Mo. On Thursday, she revealed that her family’s businesses received nearly $ 480,000.

The program was initially implemented in April, offering $ 349 billion to small businesses. After those funds quickly ran out, the government replenished the program with an additional $ 310 billion.

Critics of the program have expressed concern that the amount of untapped funds could show that rural or minority-owned companies with weaker or no banking relationships have struggled to access aid money. As a result of the pandemic, more than 40% of black small business owners were forced to close their stores.

Democrats have sought established guarantee programs to help Main Street reach enough to those who need it most. The bill passed by Congress to reinstate the program in April included $ 60 billion specifically for small lenders in response to concerns about businesses without a traditional bank relationship to access loans.

Last month, Congress passed a bill that eases the terms of how companies can use the funds and qualify for forgiveness. It reduced the portion of the loan that a company must spend on payroll and gave them a longer period of time to use the money.

The House of Representatives followed the Senate by passing a measure Wednesday to extend the program’s application deadline from June 30 to August 8.

Trump approved a temporary PPP extension on Saturday, setting a new application deadline for August 8 from June 30. Both houses of Congress voted to approve the extension last week.

– CNBC’s Kate Rogers and Betsy Spring contributed to this report