Five news outlets are suing the Small Business Administration for access to government records showing who received more than $700 billion in taxpayer-funded small business loans during the coronavirus pandemic.
The Washington Post, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal’s parent company Dow Jones, Bloomberg, and ProPublica are the plaintiffs listed in the lawsuit filed in federal court in Washington on Tuesday. The suit is meant to “ensure the public has access to information about how public funds are spent and to enforce federal freedom-of-information law,” a spokeswoman for the Washington Post said.
The lawsuit comes on the heels of the SBA and Treasury Department processing millions of applications for low-interest, federally subsidized loans to boost small businesses after the economic peril they’ve faced amid the pandemic.
In the $2 trillion CARES Act passed earlier this year, $669 billion went to the Paycheck Protection Program, which helps banks offer low-interest loans meant to be spent mostly on payroll. More than $60 billion also went to the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program, which helps small businesses deal with a temporary loss of revenue.
According to the lawsuit, the Washington Post submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to the SBA on April 24 for records related to the PPP and the EIDL programs. The paper asked for names and commercial street and email addresses of recipients of the approved loans; the date of loan approval and disbursement; names of officers, directors, stockholders or partners of recipient firms; the kinds and amounts of loans, loan terms, interest rates, maturity dates, and general purpose; and the identity and location of participating banks.
Bloomberg submitted its FOIA requests between April 8 and April 29, asking for records of the loans and information specific to the recipients.
The financial news outlet asked for an expedited process, saying the information had great public interest and demanded urgency. The SBA first responded to Bloomberg on April 20 with the boilerplate message of, “In the future, we will be able to turn our efforts to providing loan specific data to the public but hope that all understand the need for the Agency to focus its efforts fulfilling the needs of the small businesses.”
The agency sent Bloomberg nearly identical emails on April 21, April 23, May 4, and May 6 but has not yet produced any records, according to the suit. Dow Jones submitted its request between April 13 and May 1. ProPublica did so on April 23 with the New York Times following on April 27.
