Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Who Got Small-Business Relief Loans? Trump Donors, Elite Schools, Planned Parenthood Are On The List
The Washington Post: Small Business Administration Releases Records On Paycheck Protection Program Loans
Data released Monday by the Small Business Administration shows that businesses owned by members of Congress and the law practice that represented President Trump were among the hundreds of thousands of firms that received aid from the agency. As part of its $660 billion small-business relief program, the SBA also handed out loans to private schools catering to elite clientele, firms owned by foreign companies and large chains backed by well-heeled Wall Street firms. Nearly 90,000 companies in the program took the aid without promising on their applications they would rehire workers or create jobs. (O'Connell, Gregg, Rich, Narayanswamy and Whoriskey, 7/6)
The New York Times: Lobbyists, Law Firms And Trade Groups Took Small-Business Loans
The Trump administration, under pressure to reveal which companies received loans from a $660 billion program intended to keep small businesses afloat, on Monday released data showing that restaurants, medical offices and car dealerships ranked high among the top loan recipients. (Smialek, Tankersley and Broadwater, 7/6)
The Wall Street Journal: Small Business Loans Helped The Well-Heeled And Connected, Too
The 660,000 companies named accounted for only the largest loans—those worth $150,000 or more. The loans can be forgiven if used largely to retain employees. The loans disclosed Monday represented about 15% of more than 4 million loan participants in the program but about $3 of every $4 distributed. (Tracy, Day and Haddon, 7/6)
AP: Trump Donors Among Early Recipients Of Coronavirus Loans
As much as $273 million in federal coronavirus aid was awarded to more than 100 companies that are owned or operated by major donors to President Donald Trump’s election efforts, according to an Associated Press analysis of federal data. Many were among the first to be approved for a loan in early April, when the administration was struggling to launch the lending program. And only eight businesses had to wait until early May before securing the aid, according to the AP’s review of data released Monday. (Slodysko and Kastanis, 7/7)
NBC News: What Unites Planned Parenthood, Kushner And Kanye? PPP Loans
The federal government backed loans totaling as much as $150 million for Planned Parenthood affiliates in recent weeks, according to federal Paycheck Protection Program data released Monday by the Small Business Administration. The loans infuriated anti-abortion-rights conservatives, who cheered last year when President Donald Trump moved successfully to block the organization from getting access to the federal government's main family planning fund. (Allen and Gardella, 7/6)
AP: Kanye West? The Girl Scouts? Hedge Funds? All Got PPP Loans
The government’s small business lending program has benefited millions of companies, with the goal of minimizing the number of layoffs Americans have suffered in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. Yet the recipients include many you probably wouldn’t have expected. Kanye West’s clothing line. The sculptor Jeff Koons. Law firms and high-dollar hedge funds. The Girl Scouts. Political groups on both the left and right. (Rugaber, 7/7)
Reuters: U.S. Pandemic Aid Program Saved 51.1 Million Jobs, But Wealthy And Connected Also Benefited
The gallery of well-connected names extended deeply into the world of America’s privileged and super famous. Sidwell Friends School, an exclusive private school which educated former President Barack Obama’s daughters, was approved for between $5 million and $10 million, as was Saint Ann’s School in Brooklyn, which - with tuition exceeding $50,000 per year - is attended by the children of hedge fund managers and celebrities. (Price, Lawder and Delevingne, 7/6)
Stat: Venter Institute, Yumanity Among Biopharma Recipients Of PPP Loans
Yumanity, the J. Craig Venter Institute, and dozens of other companies around the biotech industry received Paycheck Protection Program loans, according to data disclosed Monday... The program, which Congress established in a March law to help companies continue to pay employees that would otherwise be laid off or furloughed, has been under fire for its lack of transparency and for initially allowing well-funded, often publicly traded companies to seek the financial help. (Sheridan, 7/6)
AP: Virus Loans Helped Entities Tied To Trump Evangelical Allies
Churches connected to President Donald Trump and other organizations linked to current or former Trump evangelical advisers received at least $17.3 million in loans from a federal rescue package designed to aid small businesses during the coronavirus pandemic. Those receiving loans include City of Destiny, the Florida church that Trump’s personal pastor and White House faith adviser Paula White-Cain calls home, and First Baptist Dallas, led by Trump ally and senior pastor Robert Jeffress. City of Destiny got between $150,000 and $350,000 from the Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP, and First Baptist Dallas got between $2 million and $5 million, according to data released by the Treasury Department on Monday. (Schor, 7/7)
