Less than two weeks after the passage of the CARES Act, which authorized $2 trillion in stimulus to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, President Trump raised eyebrows by firing the inspector general in charge of monitoring the distribution of the money.
“President Trump is abusing the coronavirus pandemic to eliminate honest and independent public servants,” argued Senate Minority Leader Chuck Shumer, as reported by Fox News. “[W]e need to ensure those dollars are spent carefully and effectively," added House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Their fears may have been well-founded.
Mother Jones reports that, when the bill was passed, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin promised transparency: “I think that the American public deserves to know what’s going on, given the amount of money that we’ll be putting out,” he said in April.
Now, in June, he and other members of the Trump administration are arguing that releasing information about which companies received loans under the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) would be a “trade secret.” $660 billion in loans has been authorized, and even other lawmakers and government agencies can’t find out who received them.
This isn’t the first controversy with distribution of this money.
Over $1 billion of loans included in the PPP, meant specifically to help small businesses, instead went to large corporations and sometimes even to members of Congress.
At the same time, many small businesses, especially minority businesses such as Black-owned businesses, struggled to access that lifeline. Critics worry that the problem might be even bigger than previously reported, and the Trump administration is trying to cover it up.
Reports surfaced early on that Trump donors got easy access to the loans while actual small businesses struggled - like luxury hotel chain Braemar Hotels & Resorts and construction supply company Continental Materials. Both companies, and many other big businesses that quickly got loans, have executives and board leaders who donated huge amounts to Trump campaigns.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers, including Sen. Kamala Harris, is attempting to get to the bottom of the spending with a bill requiring transparency, according to USA Today. “Shielding information about the PPP has no apparent purpose other than perhaps to protect you or the agencies from having to answer to the American people,” wrote Sen. Harris in a letter to Secretary Mnuchin.
A second round of stimulus is planned, but many worry that it, too, could be mired in controversy and what, on the surface, looks like corruption.
Because Republicans loyal to Trump are still the majority in the Senate, it’s unlikely that Sen. Harris’ bill will pass - even with bipartisan support.