This week, new flaws in the Payment Protection Program (PPP) have come to light thanks to a lawsuit forcing the Small Business Administration (SBA) to release troves of data on the program. Meanwhile, Democrat leaders in the House of Representatives and the Senate are backing a new stimulus bill “roughly half the size” of a bill which failed in negotiations prior to the election. 

At the same time, the previous stimulus bill has come under criticism for showering funds upon some of the country’s largest corporations, rather than small town America.

Frustrated with the lack of transparency around the PPP from the SBA, nearly a dozen news organizations sued for the release of “sweeping data” on the program. What it has revealed unfortunately constitutes more of the same, with huge sums of money going to business partners of people and entities associated with the Trump administration -- a topic we have covered here at Contractor News prior to the release of this new data.

Meanwhile, other issues revealed by the new data show that even more issues in the program that we’ve previously written about -- namely fraud -- are also worse than we thought.

According to NBC News. which was a plaintiff in the lawsuit that forced the data’s release and mobilized it’s vast resources to analyze the trove of data: 

“Over 100 loans were made to companies where no business name was listed, were listed as “no name available” or showed potential data entry errors, such as names that appeared to be dates or phone numbers. More than 300 companies appear to have each gotten more than $10 million in loans through their subsidiaries. Businesses were not supposed to receive more than $10 million per entity, except for those in the food, hospitality or hotels industries.”

Yet another issue we’ve previously identified -- the allocation of funds originally intended for small businesses going mostly in large sums to large businesses -- is further explained. As we previously noted, “the almost 2 percent of loans that were greater than $1 million (about $180 billion) accounted for 35 percent of funds.” 

The employee cap for the PPP is set at 500 -- meaning that you are only eligible for forgivable loans through the program if you have that or fewer. It was raised following lobbying efforts by hotel and restaurant industries. Yet, as NBC News explains, less than two percent of small businesses have more than 100 employees.

The outlet also notes that minority-owned businesses who didn’t have strong, existing relationships with banks were often left out to dry.

Yet, for some reason, there are still tons of PPP funds that have yet to be distributed. On Thursday, ranking member of the House Committee on Small Business Steve Chabot (R-OH) tweeted, “There is over $130 billion in remaining PPP funds. I have introduced legislation that would reopen the program and ensure aid reaches the small businesses that need it most.”

This is nothing less than a massive policy blunder. According to one study, 160,000 businesses closed between April and September. That’s more than 800 per day, and there has been little to no new federal relief in that time period or since September.

Meanwhile, a Friday press release from the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council showcased disastrous prospects for both small businesses and local governments. According to the organization, 95 percent of such respondents to a recent survey “believe their organization or industry will face significant challenges, or worse, will be forced to close its doors.”

Now, just in case you still don’t have a headache from shaking your head, let’s talk about what Congress is actually doing to improve the situation for small businesses.

Too Little, Too Late?

On Wednesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck rallied behind a new bipartisan economic relief package of $908 billion, calling it a “compromise deal.”

It includes substantially less money than what democrats had sought in negotiations prior to the presidential election. The package includes $290 billion in funds for the PPP among a number of other boosts to social spending and cash-strapped government agencies. 

But it falls short of the Heroes Act, which included a direct check of $1,200 to US citizens. And critically, the relief money in the bill totals about half of what was offered by the Trump White House in negotiations with Democrats in October, according to Newsweek.

But not everybody in the party is willing to vote for the bill without those direct payments. Senator Bernie Sanders has vowed to vote against it.

On Friday, Pelosi was questioned about her rejection of the White House offer. It comes at a time when many Americans are suffering from unemployment and depleted savings.

She defended her position citing the “game-changers” of Joe Biden’s election as he “recognizes that we need to depend on science,” and the incoming vaccine being an “answer to our prayers.”