WASHINGTON, D.C. (NEXSTAR) – The US Treasury Department has finally made its Paycheck Protection Program public.
Hedge funds, development corporations, large restaurant groups, all among the nearly 5 million American businesses that got a PPP Loan designed to help struggling small businesses.
“How is it so many of the wealthiest businesses in the United States got these loans?” Representative Judy Chu, D-California, said.
Congresswoman Judy Chu serves on the committee that oversees the small business administration.
She’s calling for an audit of the PPP program and the small business association.
She says too many cash-rich companies got loans that shouldn’t have.
“The priority was supposed to be for the underserved communities. And the banks clearly made their priority their best customers,” Chu said.
Chu says it’s possible negligence, rather than corruption, is the root of the problem.
She says most of the 5 million PPP loans went to the small businesses who needed them.
“I think we’ve put enough safeguards in it, for the most part,” Representative Doug LaMalfa, R-California, said.
Republican Doug LaMalfa says the program has generally been a success helping many businesses withstand the pandemic but he supports an audit of the businesses that got more than two million in loans.
“If there’s funny business involved with any of them, and certainly people are going to be looking for that, then they’ll have to answer,” LaMalfa said.
In a statement, SBA Administrator Jovita Carranza called the PPP an “indisputable success” that put “funding into the hands of those who faced enormous obstacles as a result of the pandemic.”