'We Never Agreed to Full Transparency.' Steven Mnuchin Defends Limits PPP disclosure
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin defended his department’s decision to only release a partial list of the Paycheck Protection Program’s loan recipients, but said Congress could obtain additional information as part of its oversight probes.
“This was a program we never agreed to full transparency, and the reason for that is the loan amount is based upon the amount of salary,” Mnuchin said in an interview as part of the TIME100 Talks on Tuesday. “What I wanted to make sure was for the very small businesses we would not disclose the loan amount and the company name. Because if we did that, you would be able to tell people’s compensation, and we didn’t think that was fair.”
Mnuchin told TIME that he was not opposed to providing Congress with more information, as long as it remains confidential. “As it relates to oversight committees that keep information confidential, they will have access to more information,” he said. “We are very much in favor in making sure Congress is very clear in how we are distributing this money.”
The Paycheck Protection Program, a centerpiece of the $2.2 trillion coronavirus relief package President Trump signed into law last March, administers federally backed loans to businesses of up to 500 employees that can be turned into grants if the majority of the funds are spent on payroll. The program is run by the Small Business Administration, and Congress has allotted $649 billion in funding for it. Nearly 80 percent of those funds had been spent as of June 19th. (The final deadline to apply for a loan is June 30th).
https://www.yahoo.com/news/never-agreed-full-transparency-treasury-172845732.html
Hey dumbass. Any government spending should be transparent. You are no longer in the private sector managing peoples' investment portfolios.
= new reply since forum marked as read
