WEBVTT - Who Is Getting All That Paycheck Protection Program  Money?

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<v Speaker 1>It's Thursday, July nine. I'm Oscar Amrrors from the Daily

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<v Speaker 1>Dive podcast in Los Angeles, and this is reopening America.

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<v Speaker 1>Who is getting all the money? The Small Business Association

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<v Speaker 1>and the Treasury Department have released the names of more

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<v Speaker 1>than six hundred and sixty thousand businesses that received money

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<v Speaker 1>from the Paycheck Protection Program. The program has given payouts

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<v Speaker 1>to lawmaker connected businesses including car dealerships, casinos, construction companies,

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<v Speaker 1>and restaurants. Nicholas wou, politics reporter at USA Today, joins

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<v Speaker 1>us for more on the p p P. Thanks for

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<v Speaker 1>joining us, Nicholas, Thanks so much for having me so.

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<v Speaker 1>The Small Business Administration and the Treasury Department have released

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<v Speaker 1>the names of more than six hundred and sixty businesses

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<v Speaker 1>that received between one hundred and fifty thousand or up

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<v Speaker 1>to the ten million dollar maximum for the Paycheck Protection Program.

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<v Speaker 1>In total, they say they dispatched more than five hundred

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<v Speaker 1>and twenty one billion dollars to nearly four point nine

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<v Speaker 1>million in businesses since early April. I think they said

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<v Speaker 1>that healthcare and I T services were among the biggest

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<v Speaker 1>recipients in all of this, But as we are looking

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<v Speaker 1>into the businesses that have gotten some of this money.

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<v Speaker 1>We're starting to find connections to people in Congress. We're

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<v Speaker 1>starting to find connections to some very wealthy businesses. I

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<v Speaker 1>think Kanye West, his company was also a recipient of

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<v Speaker 1>all this. So help us break some of this down, Nicholas,

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<v Speaker 1>who's getting all of this money? This was a massive

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<v Speaker 1>data dump. There's over six hundred sixty names, and that's

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<v Speaker 1>just in the businesses that we got all the names

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<v Speaker 1>for UH and these were the businesses that got over

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<v Speaker 1>one hundred fifty thousand dollars in loans, but the great

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<v Speaker 1>majority of the loans given we're actually for under that amount,

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<v Speaker 1>and all the names were redacted for those. So it's

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<v Speaker 1>a wide range of businesses here, everything from you know,

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<v Speaker 1>your mom and pop kind of restaurants and stores up

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<v Speaker 1>to UH some businesses that were franchises of major corporations,

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<v Speaker 1>to yes, the yacht clubs and the wineries and the

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<v Speaker 1>businesses that are connected to members of Congress. Obviously, this

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<v Speaker 1>is to help get people through the coronavirus shutdowns, But

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<v Speaker 1>what do the people have to do to apply and

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<v Speaker 1>successfully get a loan? So it was kind of a

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<v Speaker 1>tricky process. So that the idea was to provide forgivable

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<v Speaker 1>loans to small businesses in order to keep all of

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<v Speaker 1>their employees on through the coronavirus pandemic. And the criteria

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<v Speaker 1>was that you needed to have five hundred or fewer

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<v Speaker 1>workers and you could get a low interest loan of

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<v Speaker 1>up to ten million dollars. And originally, as it was written,

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<v Speaker 1>a lot of franchises of major corporations were eligible because

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<v Speaker 1>the total number of employees you had was counted by

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<v Speaker 1>the individual business unit, not as part of the overall,

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<v Speaker 1>you know, large corporation that is something like McDonald's. So

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<v Speaker 1>that caused a lot of controversy, but was changed once

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<v Speaker 1>the program him was renewed. And so tell us some

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<v Speaker 1>of the big names that we're getting some money in this.

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<v Speaker 1>As mentioned the beginning, there was a lot of lawmaker

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<v Speaker 1>connected businesses that received some of this money. What we

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<v Speaker 1>noticed as as we're going through the data is that

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<v Speaker 1>some of these businesses are connected to some of the

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<v Speaker 1>wealthiest members of Congress, and a lot of these members

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<v Speaker 1>do own small businesses on the side too. So for instance,

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<v Speaker 1>we noticed everyone from Congressman Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania, whose

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<v Speaker 1>car dealerships received at least three different loans between three

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<v Speaker 1>hundred fifty thousand dollars each and one million dollars. Another Congressman,

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<v Speaker 1>Kevin Earn from Oklahoma, whose compody that's held in the

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<v Speaker 1>family trust, received loans for their McDonald's franchises. And UH

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<v Speaker 1>Congressman Matt Cartwright in Pennsylvania. His wife has partnered at

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<v Speaker 1>a law firm and they received a loan somewhere between

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<v Speaker 1>three hundred fifty thou dollars and one million. The Treasury

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<v Speaker 1>Department gave us dollar amounts in terms of ranges, not

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<v Speaker 1>in terms of specific amounts. There's not anybody that's been

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<v Speaker 1>accused of any wrongdoing in any of this. This is

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<v Speaker 1>just kind of throwing out the names of basically people

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<v Speaker 1>who have gotten some of these loans. There are the

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<v Speaker 1>names of the business is, not of the specific people,

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<v Speaker 1>so it was it was kind of tricky to actually

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<v Speaker 1>trace all of them back to who actually owned all

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<v Speaker 1>of these what's been the overall reception of this program,

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<v Speaker 1>because I know that there's been a few problems early

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<v Speaker 1>on in the beginning, there's a lot of businesses that

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<v Speaker 1>complained that they didn't get anything any money out of this,

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<v Speaker 1>But it does seem to have helped a vast variety

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<v Speaker 1>of businesses get through some of these shutdowns, or at

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<v Speaker 1>least try to get through some of the shutdowns. It's

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<v Speaker 1>something that we saw, especially with these businesses owned or

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<v Speaker 1>linked to lawmakers, was that they emphasize that they were

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<v Speaker 1>able to keep on staff for the duration of the pandemic.

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<v Speaker 1>So this was a very popular program, and it was

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<v Speaker 1>still popular in fact, then it ran out of money

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<v Speaker 1>at first because so many people needed the funding. Where

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<v Speaker 1>the controversy comes in is what order people might have

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<v Speaker 1>gotten funds in, whether there was any special preference because

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<v Speaker 1>of connections people had, or in the case of some

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<v Speaker 1>companies like those controlled by the governor of West Virginia,

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<v Speaker 1>UM the governor there is a billionaire and he also

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<v Speaker 1>owns a very large resort complex in the state, which

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<v Speaker 1>received let's see, between five to ten million dollars worth

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<v Speaker 1>of loans. So that's where we're seeing some of the

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<v Speaker 1>backlash to the p p P program, and it will

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<v Speaker 1>be interesting to see what Congress does with it the

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<v Speaker 1>next time it comes up for renewal. It's been extended

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<v Speaker 1>through August eight. I guess there's still got a few

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<v Speaker 1>billion to go through or to allocate. When is this

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<v Speaker 1>going to come up again? Well, Congress's own recess right now,

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<v Speaker 1>but they'll come back at the end of July, and

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<v Speaker 1>they've given themselves a very short window to try to

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<v Speaker 1>draft and allocate money for a potential next coronavirus stimulus bill.

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<v Speaker 1>So we'll see exactly what happens there. But as the

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<v Speaker 1>corona as pandemic continues and as businesses across the country

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<v Speaker 1>remained shuttered, um it, it looks like this could still

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<v Speaker 1>very much be a major issue. Nicholas wou politics reporter

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<v Speaker 1>at USA Today. Thank you very much for joining us,

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<v Speaker 1>Thanks for having me on. I'm Oscar Ramirez and this

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<v Speaker 1>has been reopening America. Don't forget effort today's big news stories.

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<v Speaker 1>You can check me out on the Daily Dive podcast

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<v Speaker 1>every Monday the Friday, So follow us on I Heart

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