WASHINGTON -- The Small Business Administration has asked a federal judge to delay release of records involving millions of small businesses that received Paycheck Protection Program loans, arguing that publicizing it would do "irreparable harm" to millions of businesses by exposing allegedly confidential information.
A federal judge ruled Nov. 5 that the agency must release borrower and loan information about the federal Paycheck Protection Program by Thursday. The Washington Post and 10 other news organizations prevailed in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit to win the information's release. But in a court filing last week the agency said it needed more time to determine whether it should appeal.
The agency doubled down on its long-held position that revealing the loan totals would indirectly expose private companies' payroll information, an argument the judge rejected.
Congress approved the Paycheck Protection Program in March as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act. It was intended to keep workers paid and companies open during the coronavirus pandemic and lockdown. But a dearth of information about loan amounts and loan recipients has made it difficult to fully and accurately gauge the program's effectiveness.
The Small Business Administration and Treasury Department have released detailed industry and state breakdowns showing where paycheck-protection spending went throughout the program's rollout, and have touted claims about the program's job-creation successes in releases and congressional testimony. But they have tried to prevent most of the business names and specific loan amounts from being made public.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and the small-business agency's administrator, Jovita Carranza, initially told members of Congress that recipient names and loan amounts were confidential and would not be released at all.
The Washington Post filed a Freedom of Information Act request for this information on April 24. After the agency failed to respond in the time required by law, the Post and 10 other national news organizations eventually sued for the release of this program's loan information.
In response to the lawsuit, the agency posted loan-level data of 660,000 business and nonprofit organizations that received at least $150,000 in funding.
The agency balked at providing exact loan figures for any of the loans as well as borrower information for loans of less than $150,000, an estimated 87% of all program loans. The agency claimed that Freedom of Information Act's confidential business information and personal privacy exemptions allowed the agency to withhold the records. The Treasury Department estimates that over $525 billion in loans have been disbursed.