If they can reverse the debt forgiveness for student loans, they can reverse the debt forgiveness for PPP loans...
They can also reverse any bailouts given to corporations who abused the system — paying bonuses or dividends to shareholders while suckling on the tax payers teat.
Start with the PPP loans given to members of Congress
The Biden administration plans to more aggressively pursue thousands of small businesses with past-due pandemic loans, reversing an earlier policy that saw the U.S. government stop short of trying to collect an estimated $30 billion in delinquent debt.
The new approach, announced Thursday, arrives months after federal watchdogs and congressional lawmakers first blasted the administration for its leniency, warning that the government risked breaking the law — and exacerbating its losses — if it didn’t try harder to get the money back.
[ U.S. halts collection on some past-due covid loans, sparking federal probes ]
At the height of the coronavirus pandemic, Congress created two generous stimulus programs to help cash-starved firms stay afloat: the Covid-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan, known as EIDL, and the Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP. Over their life span, the lending initiatives provided more than $1 trillion in assistance to companies large and small, helping to blunt the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.
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Congress allowed borrowers to request their PPP loans be forgiven, while those who obtained aid under EIDL were supposed to repay the money. Before most of those EIDL bills became due, however, the Small Business Administration quietly enacted a policy in April 2022 to halt some collection activities on past-due loans of $100,000 or less, The Washington Post first reported earlier this year.
Explaining its policy, SBA officials said at the time it would have cost too much money to refer each delinquent loan to the Treasury Department, which can impose the toughest punishments on late borrowers, including wage garnishment. But the rationale troubled the agency’s inspector general, Hannibal “Mike” Ware, whose office in September warned that the SBA policy “could incentivize other COVID-19 EIDL recipients to stop paying on their loans.”
In its investigation, the watchdog estimated that there were about $62 billion in past-due EIDL loans worth $100,000 or less as of this March. Earlier, the inspector general found an additional $1.1 billion in unpaid PPP loans that the government had charged off as a loss and never referred to the Treasury Department for collection activities.
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By its own measurement, the SBA on Thursday estimated there are about $30 billion in PPP and EIDL loans worth up to $100,000 that could be subject to the stiffer sanctions next year. The potentially staggering loss amounts to about 2.5 percent of those programs’ total portfolios, the agency said.
“The Small Business Administration constantly assesses the implementation of its programs and makes data-driven decisions to ensure the agency remains a responsible steward of taxpayer money in supporting America’s 33.5 million small businesses,” a spokesperson said in a statement.
“The SBA’s longstanding policy is to use all cost-effective methods to collect on all pandemic-era loans as required by law," the agency added, “and we will refer PPP and COVID EIDL loans less than $100,000 to Treasury in accordance with a recent, updated analysis demonstrating that this final collection step will be cost effective for the government.”
[ The Covid Money Trail: Findings from our year-long investigation ]
The new policy is unlikely to assuage some Republicans on Capitol Hill, who have previously castigated the agency for its handling of the EIDL and PPP programs, which began under former President Donald Trump. Rep. Roger Williams (R-Tex.), the chairman of the House Small Business Committee, threatened to subpoena the SBA earlier this year for records related to its repayment policies.
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The dispute underscores the unique and expensive challenges that plague SBA more than three years after Congress tasked the agency to manage an aid portfolio that was larger than its annual budget. Its generosity and haste early in the pandemic may have saved millions of small businesses, but it also came at a steep cost to federal taxpayers, with losses from fraud alone that may now exceed $200 billion.
That figure does not include borrowers who have fallen behind on their bills by 30 days or more, either as a result of economic hardship or negligence. Under a 1996 federal law, the SBA is supposed to take aggressive action to pursue these debts — or demonstrate that it would be prohibitively expensive for the government to do so. The agency adopted the latter approach with PPP and EIDL last April, concluding in an analysis later that year that a full federal crackdown would result in a net loss for the government, according to SBA.
Instead, the SBA opted to place 75.2 million phone calls, and send 7 million emails and 1.6 million letters, to borrowers that had fallen behind on their EIDL bills, the agency said Thursday. Before revising its policy, it also put delinquent businesses on an official list that prohibits them from obtaining federal loans and other related aid in the future. And SBA reported the late debts to credit-ratings bureaus, though federal watchdogs later found that the government had failed to do so in a timely, appropriate way.
Story continues below advertisement
Starting next year, SBA plans to refer delinquent pandemic borrowers to the Treasury Department after a 60-day grace period that will end in early March. The agency has the power to levy the harshest of sanctions, and it can retain a portion of a taxpayer’s refund or deduct amounts from other federal aid just to recover unpaid government debt.
The SBA previously considered other approaches to manage its beleaguered EIDL portfolio, at one point hiring an outside consultant that later recommended the agency sell its fuller stable of loans in a bid to minimize its losses. But the agency ultimately opted against that idea, according to its inspector general, which raised the prospect in a September report that the SBA “risks” violating the law by not trying to collect the debts.
Good.
Small businesses like the Washington Post?
The Washington Post didn’t take any PPP loans though…
Out of all the multinational conglomerates who received PPP loans, you pick the Washington Post? Why?
Probably because that is where the article is from.
Probably totally random and not politically motivated
The IRS finds every nickel of owed funds. Unfair if they don't collect.
Friendly reminder Tom Brady stole a million dollars from the taxpayers.
LOL, weird the dems have never done political theater and then fucked everyone over and over for decades... oh wait.
This is NOT an endorsement of the Nazis to the right of the dems. Who has identical economic policies and worship fascism.
I think this is a good move. Plenty of PPP money was handed out to the wrong people for the wrong reasons. It was a loan after all and the people I'm talking about sure seems to hate the idea of student loans being forgiven.
I know just such a jackass. Took almost $100k in PPP loans and had it all forgiven. Goes apoplectic at the notion of forgiving student loans. He definitely employees people with student loans. Wish there was a way that didn't seem just petty as fuck to let them know how their boss wants life to be more difficult for them.
I don't understand why all these dicks were allowed to get massive loans that they never have to pay back. Wtf.
Trump and the Republican are why.
The data obtained by POGO appears to show mass close-outs of 2.7 million flags on two separate days near the end of the Trump administration. On a third day shortly before President Joe Biden’s inauguration, the SBA cleared out 99.1% of “special review” flags, almost entirely assigned to the very largest PPP loans above $2 million.
If they can reverse the debt forgiveness for student loans, they can reverse the debt forgiveness for PPP loans...
They can also reverse any bailouts given to corporations who abused the system — paying bonuses or dividends to shareholders while suckling on the tax payers teat.
Start with the PPP loans given to members of Congress
The Biden administration plans to more aggressively pursue thousands of small businesses with past-due pandemic loans, reversing an earlier policy that saw the U.S. government stop short of trying to collect an estimated $30 billion in delinquent debt.
The new approach, announced Thursday, arrives months after federal watchdogs and congressional lawmakers first blasted the administration for its leniency, warning that the government risked breaking the law — and exacerbating its losses — if it didn’t try harder to get the money back.
[ U.S. halts collection on some past-due covid loans, sparking federal probes ] At the height of the coronavirus pandemic, Congress created two generous stimulus programs to help cash-starved firms stay afloat: the Covid-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan, known as EIDL, and the Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP. Over their life span, the lending initiatives provided more than $1 trillion in assistance to companies large and small, helping to blunt the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.
Story continues below advertisement
Congress allowed borrowers to request their PPP loans be forgiven, while those who obtained aid under EIDL were supposed to repay the money. Before most of those EIDL bills became due, however, the Small Business Administration quietly enacted a policy in April 2022 to halt some collection activities on past-due loans of $100,000 or less, The Washington Post first reported earlier this year. Explaining its policy, SBA officials said at the time it would have cost too much money to refer each delinquent loan to the Treasury Department, which can impose the toughest punishments on late borrowers, including wage garnishment. But the rationale troubled the agency’s inspector general, Hannibal “Mike” Ware, whose office in September warned that the SBA policy “could incentivize other COVID-19 EIDL recipients to stop paying on their loans.” In its investigation, the watchdog estimated that there were about $62 billion in past-due EIDL loans worth $100,000 or less as of this March. Earlier, the inspector general found an additional $1.1 billion in unpaid PPP loans that the government had charged off as a loss and never referred to the Treasury Department for collection activities. Story continues below advertisement
By its own measurement, the SBA on Thursday estimated there are about $30 billion in PPP and EIDL loans worth up to $100,000 that could be subject to the stiffer sanctions next year. The potentially staggering loss amounts to about 2.5 percent of those programs’ total portfolios, the agency said.
“The Small Business Administration constantly assesses the implementation of its programs and makes data-driven decisions to ensure the agency remains a responsible steward of taxpayer money in supporting America’s 33.5 million small businesses,” a spokesperson said in a statement.
“The SBA’s longstanding policy is to use all cost-effective methods to collect on all pandemic-era loans as required by law," the agency added, “and we will refer PPP and COVID EIDL loans less than $100,000 to Treasury in accordance with a recent, updated analysis demonstrating that this final collection step will be cost effective for the government.”
[ The Covid Money Trail: Findings from our year-long investigation ] The new policy is unlikely to assuage some Republicans on Capitol Hill, who have previously castigated the agency for its handling of the EIDL and PPP programs, which began under former President Donald Trump. Rep. Roger Williams (R-Tex.), the chairman of the House Small Business Committee, threatened to subpoena the SBA earlier this year for records related to its repayment policies.
Story continues below advertisement
The dispute underscores the unique and expensive challenges that plague SBA more than three years after Congress tasked the agency to manage an aid portfolio that was larger than its annual budget. Its generosity and haste early in the pandemic may have saved millions of small businesses, but it also came at a steep cost to federal taxpayers, with losses from fraud alone that may now exceed $200 billion. That figure does not include borrowers who have fallen behind on their bills by 30 days or more, either as a result of economic hardship or negligence. Under a 1996 federal law, the SBA is supposed to take aggressive action to pursue these debts — or demonstrate that it would be prohibitively expensive for the government to do so. The agency adopted the latter approach with PPP and EIDL last April, concluding in an analysis later that year that a full federal crackdown would result in a net loss for the government, according to SBA.
Instead, the SBA opted to place 75.2 million phone calls, and send 7 million emails and 1.6 million letters, to borrowers that had fallen behind on their EIDL bills, the agency said Thursday. Before revising its policy, it also put delinquent businesses on an official list that prohibits them from obtaining federal loans and other related aid in the future. And SBA reported the late debts to credit-ratings bureaus, though federal watchdogs later found that the government had failed to do so in a timely, appropriate way. Story continues below advertisement
Starting next year, SBA plans to refer delinquent pandemic borrowers to the Treasury Department after a 60-day grace period that will end in early March. The agency has the power to levy the harshest of sanctions, and it can retain a portion of a taxpayer’s refund or deduct amounts from other federal aid just to recover unpaid government debt.
The SBA previously considered other approaches to manage its beleaguered EIDL portfolio, at one point hiring an outside consultant that later recommended the agency sell its fuller stable of loans in a bid to minimize its losses. But the agency ultimately opted against that idea, according to its inspector general, which raised the prospect in a September report that the SBA “risks” violating the law by not trying to collect the debts.
Good.
Small businesses like the Washington Post?
The Washington Post didn’t take any PPP loans though…
Out of all the multinational conglomerates who received PPP loans, you pick the Washington Post? Why?
Probably because that is where the article is from.
Probably totally random and not politically motivated
The IRS finds every nickel of owed funds. Unfair if they don't collect.
Friendly reminder Tom Brady stole a million dollars from the taxpayers.
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/05/tom-bradys-company-tb12-received-more-than-960000-ppp-loan.html
LOL, weird the dems have never done political theater and then fucked everyone over and over for decades... oh wait.
This is NOT an endorsement of the Nazis to the right of the dems. Who has identical economic policies and worship fascism.
I think this is a good move. Plenty of PPP money was handed out to the wrong people for the wrong reasons. It was a loan after all and the people I'm talking about sure seems to hate the idea of student loans being forgiven.
I know just such a jackass. Took almost $100k in PPP loans and had it all forgiven. Goes apoplectic at the notion of forgiving student loans. He definitely employees people with student loans. Wish there was a way that didn't seem just petty as fuck to let them know how their boss wants life to be more difficult for them.
I don't understand why all these dicks were allowed to get massive loans that they never have to pay back. Wtf.
Trump and the Republican are why.
https://www.pogo.org/investigations/the-great-pandemic-swindle-feds-botched-review-of-billions-in-suspect-ppp-loans
The whole program was designed as welfare for wealthy Conservatives like always.
Hey now the Dems are Nazis too these days let's not forget about supporting israel's genocide.
Are the republicans even bigger Nazi's? Probably. But they're both Nazi's now.