Update: After initially resisting a court order, the Small Business Administration has finally released a comprehensive list of all businesses that received loans under the Paycheck Protection Program, including loans under $150,000 and the exact amount of the loans, as opposed to only a range for the loans. Several different news organizations have analyzed the data and drawn conclusions about how it was distributed. The raw data is available from the SBA website here and there are several different databases summarizing the data, such as covidbailouttracker.com.
Original Post: The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) and the Treasury Department released data on the recipients of Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans in July 2020 following pressure from good government groups and Freedom of Information Act requests by numerous national news organizations. There were, however, several limitations to the information that was released. The SBA refused to release exact loan figures for any of the PPP loans, only releasing ranges for the loans. Moreover, the SBA only released loan-level data for 660,000 business and nonprofit organizations that received at least $150,000 in funding, declining to reveal borrower information for loans less than $150,000 -- estimated to account for 87 percent of all PPP loans.
The American Small Business League and numerous news organizations sued the SBA under the Freedom of Information Act to compel disclosure the names of all PPP loan recipients, as well as the exact amount each borrower received. On November 5, D.C. federal court Judge James Boasberg issued an order requiring the SBA to release the names, addresses and precise loan amounts of all individuals and entities that obtained the PPP loans by Thursday, November 19. Boasberg also required the SBA to release related Economic Injury Disaster Loan information, a separate small-business bailout program.
However, in a November 12th court filing, the SBA asked for a stay of the order, effectively delaying release of records while the SBA determines whether it will appeal the ruling.
When issuing his order, Judge Boasberg noted that the PPP loan applications stated that the names of borrowers and amounts of loans would be “automatically released” in response to a FOIA request. He further noted that personal privacy concerns of borrowers wishing to remain anonymous were outweighed by the public interest in discovering the fraud, waste or abuse of taxpayer funds. Judge Boasberg wrote that “many important aspects of their operation remain veiled. Disclosure of the identities of recipients of PPP loans … will contribute substantially to public understanding of SBA’s [performance].”
We will keep following and update on new developments in this case, although it seems like only a matter of time before the names of every loan recipient and the amount they borrowed becomes part of the public record.