Inconsistent information
The $790 billion Paycheck Protection Program serves as one of the largest federal efforts to provide economic stability while also detailing those payments in publicly accessible data. But it still represents a fraction of pandemic spending, offers inconsistent results and is ripe for misinterpretation.
For instance, early PPP data listed the approved totals for loans, not the actual accepted amounts, which brought scrutiny to businesses that had actually turned down the bailout loans. State Rep. Wilcox said Wilcox Farms declined most of its approved $2.8 million loan, later receiving about $1 million as forgiven relief.
Wilcox, R-Yelm, said PPP loans have proven one of the better parts of the government’s pandemic response. The aid helped his family’s farm keep staff working and producing food amid the worst of the crisis.
“That was important,” he said. “That’s exactly what it was for.”
Wilcox said he believed the program provides the necessary transparency, but he would not mind if he had to include it in financial disclosures. He noted he would prefer that relief programs continue to bear the burden of reporting recipients instead of adding new disclosures to individual reports.
The Small Business Administration has updated PPP data several times, but the lag in details can cause confusion among approved, accepted and later forgiven loan totals. Searching the public PPP data can also be imprecise. Companies with similar or matching names make it difficult to confirm which entities have connections to officials, or not.
Expanding individual reporting rules to specifically capture COVID-19 stimulus would mean each official would have any payments across multiple businesses or relief programs listed together in one place. It could also improve consistency in how payments are described, and avoid spelling or formatting variations that can make businesses hard to match to separate data.
Amid recent backlash to GOP criticism of President Biden’s student-loan forgiveness proposal, many took to social media to post Republican PPP loan totals. At least one loan to a company with a similar name was incorrectly attributed to Rep. Newhouse.
Newhouse did receive about $320,000 in forgiven loans, and his wife’s consulting company, Capitol Connections, received another $21,000 in forgiven PPP loans.
“PPP loans enabled private businesses to continue operating, providing jobs and economic output to their communities, in the face of federally-mandated restrictions,” a spokesperson wrote to Crosscut. “Newhouse Farms was eligible to apply for PPP loans in the first round of funding and applied and received funding just as any other entity would.”
For this story, Crosscut pulled recent financial disclosure reports for individuals running for federal office this year and searched for business matches to relief payments. A small sample of state and local official reports were also selected for comparison. (A disclosure report could not be found online for Newhouse’s 4th Congressional District challenger, Democrat Doug White, and Republican 7th Congressional District candidate Cliff Moon said he had not yet filed his report because his campaign launched in recent months.)
Several other candidates whom Crosscut asked to comment on their reported payments did not respond, including Republican U.S. Senate candidate Tiffany Smiley. Data shows she received a forgiven loan for $2,700 to Hope Unseen in Pasco, where she lists herself as a partner.
Republican candidate for Washington’s 8th Congressional District, Matt Larkin, lists himself as a board member and legal counsel for Romac Industries in Bothell, where his children also have ownership interest. Romac Industries received nearly $6.5 million in forgiven PPP funding.
Democrat Gluesenkamp Perez, who is running for the state’s 3rd Congressional District, also did not respond to questions about federal…
Read More: Data gaps make relief payments to WA officials hard to trace