Today, the House Foreign Affairs Committee is holding a hearing to discuss international development in the pandemic.

In a recent blog post, we broke down a USAID report on how the Trump admin. interfered with international aid during the pandemic.
americanoversight.org/report-sheds-l…
Also today, the House Small Business Committee is holding a hearing to discuss the Paycheck Protection Program.

We recently compiled what congressional committees, watchdogs, and journalists have reported on CARES Act funds, including PPP.
americanoversight.org/where-did-the-…
There have been multiple reports of ineligible companies having exploited loopholes in the Paycheck Protection Program to receive millions of dollars, or of large corporations reaping benefits designed to help struggling small firms.
.@propublica found in July 2020 that at least 15 large companies that did not qualify as small businesses collectively received more than half a billion dollars by applying for loans through smaller companies they owned.
propublica.org/article/differ…
In December, nine months after the PPP began, the SBA Inspector General announced that approximately $3.6 billion in PPP loans had been sent to potentially ineligible beneficiaries.
oversight.gov/sites/default/…
According to data obtained by the Washington Post, thousands of franchises of major chains—including McDonald’s—received billions of dollars in PPP loans despite their affiliation with large corporations.
washingtonpost.com/business/2021/…
Despite receiving millions, numerous CARES Act beneficiaries still laid off workers and engaged in questionable spending. In a December 2020 nationwide analysis, @GoodJobsFirst found that 1,900 PPP recipients laid off more than 190,000 American workers.
goodjobsfirst.org/sites/default/…
.@POGOBlog and the @acdatacollectiv found that large political donations flowed from more than 100 PPP loan recipients, suggesting those companies might not have been struggling to prioritize paying their employees.
pogo.org/investigation/…
Data analyzed by the Associated Press showed that many minority small-business owners did not receive a PPP loan until the initial program’s last weeks in July and August 2020.
apnews.com/article/techno…
In a study released in September 2020, the Brookings Institution found that small businesses in majority-white neighborhoods received PPP loans more quickly than those in majority-Black and majority-Latino neighborhoods.
brookings.edu/research/new-d…
We’ve filed a number of FOIA requests for more information about PPP and CARES Act relief funds, and will continue investigating the program’s effects. For more information about oversight of pandemic relief spending, visit our Oversight Tracker.
americanoversight.org/oversight-trac…

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More from @weareoversight

11 Mar
New: Records we obtained show an aide to then Chief of Staff Mark Meadows contacted Georgia’s Deputy Sec. of State Jordan Fuchs on Dec. 30 as the Trump White House was pressuring Georgia to illegally overturn the election result.
americanoversight.org/document/georg… Image
On Dec. 23, then-Pres. Trump called the chief investigator at the Georgia sec. of state's office & pressured the investigator to find “the right answer.” Weds., the @WSJ published the audio of this call—which Georgia also released to American Oversight.
wsj.com/articles/recor…
On Jan. 2, Trump called Georgia Sec. of State Brad Raffensperger and urged him to “find” the votes to change the outcome of the election in Georgia in his favor. President Joe Biden won the state in the November election.
washingtonpost.com/politics/trump…
Read 4 tweets
10 Mar
On January 6, our democracy was under attack. We know Donald Trump was watching and tweeting. We need to know what he did.

We’re suing for records to uncover what the president did while his supporters ransacked the Capitol.
americanoversight.org/american-overs…
On Jan. 6, mobs of Trump supporters violently attacked and invaded the U.S. Capitol building with the intent of overturning the democratic will of the American people. Donald Trump had repeatedly encouraged and incited the mob.
At roughly 1 PM, he spoke at the “Stop the Steal” rally on the ellipse, where he told his supporters to “fight like hell” to get their “country back.”
nytimes.com/2021/02/13/us/…
Read 14 tweets
9 Mar
New: We’re going to court to get answers about the failures of preparation and planning that led up to the Jan. 6 deadly mob attack on the U.S. Capitol, as well as about exactly what went wrong that day.
americanoversight.org/american-overs…
On Jan. 6, mobs of Trump supporters violently attacked and invaded the U.S. Capitol building with the intent of overturning the democratic will of the American people. But these attacks were well-coordinated and planned in plain sight. Why wasn’t law enforcement prepared?
We’ve been investigating. Five days after those attacks, we sent records requests to five agencies for communications and directives about the events at the Capitol: the Dept. of Defense, National Guard, Army, Secret Service, and the Justice Dept.
americanoversight.org/american-overs…
Read 13 tweets
9 Mar
It’s another busy week on the hill for Covid-19 oversight.

Today, the House Appropriations Committee will hold a hearing to discuss the FDA’s drug inspections programs. A GAO official will testify about concerns surrounding the FDA’s inspection activities during the pandemic.
Also today, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee will hold a hearing examining the Covid-19 response, with medical professionals testifying.
help.senate.gov/hearings/exami…
On Wednesday, the House Small Business Committee will hold a hearing to discuss the Paycheck Protection Program. The hearing will provide an overview of the PPP and an update on the current state of the loans and loan forgiveness.
smallbusiness.house.gov/calendar/event…
Read 5 tweets
5 Mar
Last week, we challenged USPS’s excessive redactions of Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s calendar.

This week, we asked the DOJ to reconsider whether it’s appropriate to defend USPS in our lawsuit for these records. #FOIAFriday
americanoversight.org/document/lette…
Attorney general nominee Merrick Garland recently testified that an important policy DOJ developed during his previous service in the department was to “read the Freedom of Information Act generously.”
cnn.com/2021/02/20/pol…
It’s also been DOJ’s policy not to defend agencies’ withholdings where they lack a substantial legal basis. And former AGs Janet Reno and Eric Holder both issued FOIA policy memos that made clear DOJ wouldn’t defend withholdings where disclosure wouldn’t result in harm.
Read 5 tweets
5 Mar
Voting rights are under attack. In January and February of this year alone, state lawmakers in 43 states introduced or carried over more than 250 bills restricting voting rights.
brennancenter.org/our-work/resea…
But the stolen-election lie isn’t just fueling new voting restrictions in states, it’s also led to numerous other measures meant to dampen democracy, from changing ballot-initiative rules to laying the groundwork for a new wave of gerrymandering.
americanoversight.org/news-roundup-t…
Here are a few examples. In Arizona, lawmakers have been leading the charge in introducing bills that restrict voting.
latimes.com/politics/story…
Read 16 tweets

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