As the remaining days dwindle for small businesses to apply for loans through the federal Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), both banks and federal officials are being challenged by several House leaders to explain how the $670 billion program intended to aid the nation’s small businesses has actually been operating.

The second June 17 Hill hearing, convened by the House Committee on Small Business, was entitled “Paycheck Protection Program: Loan Forgiveness and Other Challenges.

The Select Committee on the Coronavirus Crisis, chaired by South Carolina’s Rep. Jim Clyburn demanded that the U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, the Small Business Administration’s Jovita Carranza, and many of the nation’s largest banks “take immediate steps to ensure that remaining PPP funds are allocated to businesses truly in need, and to increase transparency so taxpayers can see whether federal funds are being diverted due to waste, fraud, and abuse.”

Continuing the Select Subcommittee added that the agencies “provide more transparency about the administration of this program so American taxpayers can understand whether federal funds are helping vulnerable businesses and saving jobs, or are being diverted due to waste, fraud, and abuse…Contrary to Secretary Mnuchin’s recent testimony, there is nothing ‘proprietary’ or ‘confidential’ about a business receiving millions of dollars appropriated by Congress and taxpayers deserve to know how their money is being spent.”

Representatives Richard E. Neal (Committee on Ways and Means), Maxine Waters (House Financial Services), and Nydia M. Velazquez (Committee on Small Business) jointly wrote both Mnuchin and Carranza, saying in part, “Transparency is critical to ensure the program is operating as intended…Furthermore, we are deeply concerned that Treasury and SBA have yet to share this information with the Government Accountability Office which is required to report to Congress on the CARES Act by the end of the month.”

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