Bowing to political pressure, the Trump administration said on Friday that it would disclose borrower information for recipients of millions of small-business loans through the $660 billion Paycheck Protection Program, the New York Times reported. The decision is a reversal for the administration, which had closely guarded the information and argued that private businesses should not have their names or the amount of money that they took from the federal government disclosed. The move comes as Democrats had seized on the secrecy surrounding the program to suggest that the bailout was an example of the Trump administration engaging in corporate cronyism. The new disclosures will apply to loans of more than $150,000. The information will be broken down into five loan ranges, topping out at the maximum amount of $10 million. The Small Business Administration will release business names, addresses, demographic data and jobs supported. The Treasury Department, which jointly administers the loan program with the SBA, did not say when the new information would be made public; however, some of the demographic data will be included in loan forgiveness applications, which might not be submitted for months. Treasury officials said on Friday that the decision, which has bipartisan support, would provide transparency while maintaining protection for small businesses. It does not appear that any additional legislation will be required, and the Treasury maintains that the law did not mandate the disclosure of additional data.
